


Amelia

by JJ03090



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/F, F/M, FEMS, FrUK, FrUs - Freeform, Frukus - Freeform, Hetalia, M/M, Multi, Nyotalia, USUK - Freeform, Yaoi, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-08-14 17:12:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 51,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8022268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJ03090/pseuds/JJ03090





	1. Chapter 1

**Leviticus 24:20**  
**_Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury._ **

 

It was a surprisingly sunny day in London Yet despite the weather Arthur was in a bit of a hissy fit. He was quite upset that he would be late to go to the games with her majesty due to the fact that he had left his phone in the Buckingham palace. He sighed looking at the majestic city. He rolled the window down the smallest bit just so he could smell the lovely sent before rainfall.

Well it wouldn't be raining where he was... He was to be in Scotland in few hours and was going to miss his bloody train before noon and then was going to have to get the conductor to refund his damned tickets, it was all to be a mess. He breathe in softly and leant back in his leather chair. He felt awful for keeping the queen waiting. She fancied his company most of the time. He couldn't say the same for all of the to royal family.

He sighed thinking of the drama in his life and then waited for the taxi to stop at the royal palace. It was simply a remarkable, how the beauty had never failed to make his eyes glaze over the smallest bit with awe. He frowned as they drove to the gates and the man waited at the gate until it opened. Then the gates closed behind them, he smiled softly as he saw a man come out to open his door. "Mister Kirkland! How nice it is to see you back here so soon! But it may not be safe to come around these here parts with all of the tours-" Arthur sighed and stepped out of the vehicle with a small frown now taking over his lips. He saw the golden statue in the square across and then sighed softly closing his eyes.

"Ah yes...um..." He could hardly remember the mans name. He chuckled as the man smiled and piped up, "Ah my name is Garfield! Jonathan Garfield!" He said happy to be acknowledged by a man of high standings in the country. Arthur exhaled softly and then rubbed his temples, "Jonathan...you see I seem to have left my cell phone in one of the rooms... I just need to pop up for a single moment and grab it. " the man looked conflicted as he shut the door watching the Englishman. "Alright! Can I offer to send a guard up with you?! Keep ya a small bit safer?" He asked politely.

At this Arthur chuckled he shook his head politely a smile coloring his features," No lad that isn't necessary...I'll just be a few moments." He said holding his hand out to shake the mans hand. Now the man smiled brightly and seemed to be honored as he shook the representatives hand. "It's very kind of you though sir..." Arthur stated simply letting his pale blond hair fly in the wind behind him. He should get it cut before he met up with the queen... She hated it when his hair was too long.

He then nodded to the guards at the gate and a man opened the door for him, it was simply too sunny, it was strange. It bothered him a small bit, but hell he was quite on edge these days anyways. There were too many ways that troublemakers could make their point across that they had power. It was quite disturbing the lengths people would go to prove their power. He began to descend the stairs in the he palace to get to the room he had forgotten his phone in.

He sighed and rubbed his temples with irritation. At least the parliament didn't need his assistance for the time being. Well until the commonwealth games had ceased, he sighed as he reached a upper floor and exiting the stairs. He hated to use the elevator due to fact he didn't quite trust it. Machines didn't always serve their purpose and then seemed to malfunction, causing some sort of mishap.

He shivered at the thought of crashing down floor after floor. He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his growing locks and furrowed his thickly fashioned eyebrows. It wouldn't kill him of course, but he had over the years developed a small awareness of how high he was. He didn't exactly fear it...but ever since the Second World War. Crashing from a high building during the Blitz. The noise, the pain, he could hardly bare to think of it. He shook the nostalgic feeling of fear as he began to walk behind some sort of rope. There must be a tour on this floor,that was perfect!

He hoped no one had pocketed his phone and run off. His cheeks started to flush the smallest bit with a small touch of anger as he began to walk towards one of the drawing rooms. He ran a hand through his thick hair and then sighed forcing the messy locks into some sort of up do. It then began to sag and fall in front of his eyes. That was perfect, just what he needed to start this damned sunny day, malfunctioning hair, and a missing phone. He sighed and then went to fix one of those problems.

He saw a few wardens standing about and watching the people. He walked past the rope and then looked around the room, "Sir-" he heard someone start but then turned and smiled softly,"I do apologize madam... But I have clearance to be on this level or past it..." He said bowing his head. "I'm an old friend of the queen... My name is Arthur..." The lady seemed to look him up and down.

Arthur was of course in his usual business attire. A black suit with a simple tie, nothing too flashy but something that looked professional enough, his blond untamed locks seemed to be cut a little past his jaw bone, this was due to the fact he hadn't time to get it trimmed. It was usually messier and shorter. He looked at her with his emerald eyes. "Arthur Kirkland..." Hug said before the lady nodded and then began to look a small bit nervous. Now people knew him by his human name, they had no idea what exactly he was, but they knew that he was a high leveled man. The countries sometimes changed their names if it got too much. He had been many identities before, being so elderly of a country. But now he was Arthur Kirkland, and no one else besides Great Britain. He would have that title until the end of time.

She looked like a police officer mixed with one of the wardens. It confused him a bit, he shrugged maybe they had changed the wardens uniforms. The lady began to speak and Arthur decided to tune into what she was saying. "The tour hasn't reached the floor yet, sir." She said looking away," So whatever your business is I would do it quickly, unless them being here doesn't bother you." She said sounding a bit respectful. Arthur chuckled and nodded," Thank you very much madam..." He said walking around the room getting a few other stares from the wardens of the room but frowning and furrowing his brow, _now where could this bleeding phone be?_ He wondered looking a small bit cross. He heard footsteps begin to filter through the room and turned ever so slightly to see whom had entered the room

It was a group of tourists, none of which carried cameras due to the fact it was forbidden. He heard a few languages being spoken within the room. _Portuguese... Spanish... American English...French... Japanese..._ His mind kept tract of the languages as he bent down to look for the damned phone. He sighed then seeing a bit of shine out of the corner of his eye, "Ah there you are..." He mumbled trailing off a bit and picking up the phone then beginning to walk back to where the warden was. He walked through the group and then something caught his eye.

Rather someone, she was almost an unbelievable sight to see. He saw someone almost too flashy to miss. She seemed to be getting stares from all the men and even some women. To Arthur she looked like something you would see at the playboy mansion...

Not that he would have gone to the gentleman's club... But she just looked so provocative...

She was wearing maybe five inch heels, they were black, stilettos. The slender heel of the shoe made a click on the floor as she walked swaying her hips. The shoes weren't too flashy, simply and vintage looking even, they exposed a generally tanned skin underneath. She didn't seem short to begin with and stood maybe two inches taller than the slender Brit. Migrating up to her ankles there were a few bracelets that hung from them, they seemed to be black and match with the shoes. They weren't too much but just enough.

Complimenting the black of her feet were a pair of black, tight pants that seemed to crop at just below her knee with seemingly white stripes going down in every direction, it was stylish like she had just been shopping in the expensive street of London, they were quite tight. Arthur would have sworn if he hadn't been blushing so hard from the sight of her that he could see every curve, every bruise, everything in her skin. The curve of her hips seemed to compliment her perfect hourglass shape as she sauntered down the hall.

Her top was the thing that would make most the the men stare in his opinion. She was wearing a white top, it looked like a short sleeved dress shirt, it was opaque and a bit unbuttoned at the top and down her nicely shaped tummy, You could see a lacy black bra that seemed to be strapless, with her nicely shaped breasts. He blushed once his eyes got to that part. He hated being so vulgar when looking at a woman like this, he was a man he just couldn't help it. It had nothing at all to do with whether he was straight, gay or bisexual. One thing that he wouldn't ever reveal to anyone due to fact that he was much to proper to worry about that. But she was simply mouth watering to any creature.

He finally got to her face. She had a pair of black wide rimmed sunglasses over her eyes seeming like she didn't want anyone in he he insides to see her. A smirk was played on plump pink lips as she moved. It was as if she enjoyed all of the eyes being on her. She had long blond hair that seemed to glimmer in the light, a natural blond, not some sort of dye job Arthur saw usually. Her hair was restricted to her back, it was pretty long reaching the small of her back and being pulled back in the front by a simple white headband.

Arthur looked away from her then feeling everyone else was staring at this girl. He took a deep breath and then remembering he had a train departing in an hour or so he turned to the woman and nodded to her,"Well I must be on my way... I have to watch the commonwealth games see how England does... Hopefully well..." The lady turned her attention to him smiled and nodded. "Good luck to you sir!" She said smiling and nodding her head. "Thank you madam-" he was cut off by a deep chuckle causing him to turn.

"Artie Kirkland?" A voice said. He faintly recognized it but his lips formed into a scowl when he heard it, "My name is Arthur... Never Artie.." He said looking at the person who had just opened her mouth. "No... You're Iggy, I'm sorry my memory never serves..." The blond whom he been staring at, turned and began to walk to him, "Iggy," she made some sort of huff with her mouth and then chuckled. "Iggy, how have you been?" She asked walking closer to him and then hearing the venom laced words drift to his ears, "I don't believe we have met, and you madam are entirely rude!" The girl gave a small giggle, "Oh we have... You seemed to have forgotten me Artie...and all of the pain you put me through..." She hissed. She began to take her sunglasses off and then let them rest in her hand gently. This revealed a pair of crystal blue eyes, framed with a dark liner. He felt like he knew her, he went through all of the people he had met within the last fifty years, "You are American?" She chuckled as a response almost getting toe to toe with this Brit.

"Mr. Kirkland shall I call security..?" The woman from before asked as all of the tourists seemed to be watching the two, Arthur should have called security, he should have he knew he would regret it. Yet curiosity had once again gotten the better of him, "No madam I will take care of this..." He then heard some kind of noise before a needle was brought up, he saw the shine of the weapon a few moments before he caught her wrist. It was a knife, _how the bloody hell do you get a knife in the palace?! I will have to have a serious word with security!_ He thought quite angered by her approach. But whilst the knife distracted him something else was being prepared, well not so much prepared as executed. He felt something sharp prick his neck and a few gasps within the audience, "Everyone run! Get security! Go all of you!" He yelled hearing panicked screams as he began to cringe against whatever was entering his body. He knocked the knife from her hand by twisting her wrist.

Footsteps ran from the room with panicked screams as doors slammed shut. Everything was getting a bit grainy, blurry, it was awful. He backed up as she continued to walk towards him, "Don't come any closer! I am trained in the...in the..." He could hardly finish his sentence. He wasn't weak, no not at all but this drug running through him was strong. He needed to be stronger. He saw her blurry figure of perfection." Artie it's me...remember..." She said with a highly amused voice as she sent a punch towards his stomach. Arthur luckily caught her smallish hand. He then heard another clicking sound seeing something metallic at her side he ripped himself away from her breathing heavily.

He was trying his best to avoid her as she began to slash what seemed like a long knife," You wronged me Artie... Now you are coming with me..." She said smiling widely and a bit crazily, but Arthur could hardly see her now. Everything was getting dark as he felt something sharp lick his cheek. He then jerked back so fast it made his head hurt. Or maybe that was what ever she had given him, he felt faint.

He leant against the table clutching it rather hardly and feeling his cheek wet with something sticky. He took a deep breath and the room spun. He could hardly stand and felt something hit him In the chest. Quite hard if he may add. He gasped and clutched at his chest grabbing something and doing his best to throw it at her. He needed to defend himself, he took a deep breath and blinked trying to slam himself back into reality and see of there was any old weapons on display in the room. He needed something such as a sword, maybe he was in luck. He saw something in a glass display case and wouldn't have normally done this but he was desperate.

He needed to defend himself against this terrorist. His hand slammed into it breaking the case and letting his hand secure over something. He felt it and smiled as best as he could. It was indeed a sword an old one. Maybe belonging to king George the III. He saw the blurring decorated sword and then pulled off the sheathe as he heard a giggle. "Oh Artie...you will be coming with me sooner or later... You'll fall..." Her words seemed to be a blur as he took a deep breath and swung at her. He was inches from her chest with a deadly accuracy that only missed due to the fact that he was drugged.

She gave a bright laugh as he almost hit her. Her heels hit against the ground making clicking noises as she swung her bigger knife at his arm. Arthur tried to block it but it was to no avail, she sliced at the part of his upper arm which made it difficult to hod the sword. She hadn't sliced through his arm, she hit the bone. Arthur grunted and switched his sword to his other hand, he felt his blood dripping from his body at an alarming level. He wouldn't die. No he would just hurt, hurt a lot, his country wouldn't suffer from this random attack on him. Only he would suffer. He gasped feeling dark play at the edges of his vision as he let out a sort of battle cry as he went to stab her in the stomach. She moved and laughed.

He then began to swing at her madly. He was going to his last resort, he could hardly stand and it was getting darker faster. He could tell he made contact a few times but not enough to stop her. He felt his suit getting tattered to pieces as they brawled. Arthur was getting weaker and weaker. He could honestly fall at anytime.

There was a sigh of boredom as their weapons clinked together in some sort of draw, Arthur then heard another click but this one was different it was the clicking of a gun being cocked into place. He then heard a bang and then gasped, this was lights out. He couldn't stand it anymore. There was banging and more gunfire heard in the distance. He could hardly hear anything as he heard a whisper spoken into his ear, it sounded like nothing but white noise for a little while but then the words formed within his mind, "Artie, have you missed me? I'm Amelia remember..?" Arthur then found himself falling into a deep sleep. One free of this new pain...

But it was only the beginning...

 


	2. Chapter 2

The meeting was starting off with a bit of a bang. People shuffled into the dark room to be greeted by a projector. Their faces were lit with the emotions of awe, confusion, disbelief, and someone was laughing. It was a wide array of emotions that made no sense to the American who walked in silently and grimly on time today.

He was confused, he just couldn't seem to understand how this could have happened. He didn't really look at anyone, smile, or high five someone whom was holding their hand up to ask a question to Germany, he just walked to his seat which was next to his brother. Canada looked a bit unsure about the whole thing. Once seeing the brilliant blonds face he seemed to straighten.

"Hey America, eh...Alfred... How was your flight? I mean..." America plopped down in his seat rather loudly attracting a few looks of attention. He wasn't sure if the looks were of pity, or they were looks of disturbance. But the American could care less, he would much rather give them all the finger and then finish it off with a glare. He wouldn't be that easy going today. "Long... This is weird isn't it?" He said looking at his quiet brother whom returned his look with a small sad smile. It was almost as if they shared a connection right there, like they both understood what the other felt. It was like they had no walls separating eachother from years of scars and years of trouble." Yes it is...I cannot believe that something like this would happen, especially to Arthur..." The Canadian looked to his fingers, "I'm sorry...since we had that new name rule or new name policy I've been struggling to call people by their human names outside of the office..." A short few years back there had been a rule enforced that outside of the meeting room they would be called by human names. This was so no one would find who they really were. It was to protect the countries from any crazy civilians. Alfred chuckled and put his hand on he he Canadians showing a small smile, "It's fine Canadia..."he said with a bit of his teasing in his voice.

He still felt a ball of despair crawling around in his chest and beating on his heart, "Okay due to the severity of the reason for our meeting, I will be calling role, I must speak for most of us when I say that, both the European Union, and the United Nations are quite disturbed by the fact that this has happened. They are also quite puzzled," the German at the head of the tabled stated sighing. He rubbed his temples there was a small chirp of joy from the Italian near him, "But it's all gonna be okay! We're gonna find him!" There was a deep sigh from someone and then the southern Italian next To him, "Shut up fratello..." He mumbled." Ow! Fratello," Italy whined.

America listened to this irritating bickering for a few moments and clenched his fist before he drew his lips into an unfamiliar scowl, "Can you two shut up your bickering so I can see the goddamned crime scene..." He hissed making Italy shiver, America of course was usually a friendly man and would have laughed and told them something like, _shut up man! I don't want to have to be here longer than I need to!_ Or maybe, _stop arguing I wanna get out of here so I can go and get some motherfuckin' Micky D's._ But today he wasn't in the mood to do so. Even though he had issues expressing it he had care for the Briton. He expelled an irritated sigh and then ,Romano opened his mouth to yell at him for correcting them but The Spaniard sitting next to him put a hand on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear.

America turned his attention back to a confused German, "Just call role..." He mumbled crossly as he crossed his arms. His brother looked at him and gave him a worried frown, "America...are you okay?" He asked the blond, Alfred nodded but felt his fingers shake. Eventually Germany had finished a opening speech, "Okay so here let us start..." He trailed off calling out names and getting an array of ,'I'm here!' Or, "Yes!" America was just scanning the room looking at people's reactions. He frowned seeing some of the Nordics simply exchanging small talk in one of their languages. He made a mental note of how suspicious to him they looked.

He then saw France sitting and rubbing his temples, he looked like he was muttering something to himself. America frowned a bit at this, he tried to make out what the French man but it was in French. He then looked back to Canada and sighed softly out of exasperation," This is a fucking mess..." He hissed under his breath as the Canadians eyes widened. "America..." The Canadian's lips moved slowly as he took a deep breath in reaching and holding His brothers hand, it felt so different. He had no one yelling at him to shut up and keep quiet.

Finally and ever so grimly Germany pulled up the crime scene photos. America took a deep breath and raised his hand, "I think that-" his eyes suddenly drifted to all of the blood puddled in different places on the screen, it was simply picture after picture of that. Blood, blood, blood was all he saw. He suddenly felt a bit nauseous," withdrawn..." He mumbled which seemed to give a few countries a frown. America usually had some kind of broad and unreasonable solution to everything that was brought up at the meetings.

But he was silent, unable to say anything for a moment as he felt his head spin. Now he was close to England... They were friends... He knew this was his blood, he should pull himself together and be a hero, but that blood...it made his knees feel weak. Canada squeezed his hand again rather tightly. Like he was trying to tell America that it would all be okay.

"There are a pair of black stilettos in the corner..." France stated a bit blandly. His usual playful voice seemed to be drained. He sighed and then looked to America, "Go on. Mr. CSI tell us what happened...ask questions do what you do best..." The Frenchman stated with his lips still drawn into a frown. America nodded and then took a deep breath, "Do we have any witness statements? Anything about the perp at all?" Germany looked at him confused and then sighed after a minute. "A witness...yes most of them don't speak English, there was one warden of the site, she saw the woman who had attacked him and told a sketch artist she looked like this," he said softly pulling up a photo of a girl. Well it was a hand drawn sketch

America's eyes widened as he took a deep breath. He knew who this was, he knew... "I...I need a moment to think...he mumbled standing and walking to the screen getting a strange look from all of the other countries, "Were...were there any finger prints at the scene?" He asked softly. Germany nodded and pulled up another file," They were strange...messed up even like someone burnt them off...or melted them..." He said looking at the screen, "Does anyone remember what we did in-" he was cut off by some sort of ring tone.

America saw some sort of bubble in the corner of the screen now, it read. _Incoming video call: sender unknown._ America bit his lip, "Germany pick it up! Quick!" The German looked a bit suspicious at first but hit the button that picked it up. It was simply vital to the investigation for them to pick up the video call. America knew this, he knew exactly what was about to happen.

"Hello friends...I bet you didn't think you would be seeing me again..." A sweet feminine voice said in a sultry accent. Her face appeared on the screen. America had never felt this much fear in his life. For he begged his eyes to be deceiving him, she was different looking then before. Her hair was much longer, it had streaks of pink and purple and many other colors in it. It seemed to be wavy now and entirely different then what the woman whom had given her description had said. But those eyes, they were the same. The ones whose beauty used to shine with laughter, with emotion, with something. Only held a cold sign of revenge and nothing of remorse. They wanted the world to surely pay, and America knew why

She was back...

Americas jaw dropped, "Amelia…."

____________________________________

_April, 23rd, 1628_

_Oh my dearest Amelia,_

_Yes it is true that you are much too young to begin reading this._

_But these letters are for you when I can no longer be around. When our country needs my presence along with Arthur's. I regretfully inform that I won't be able to stand by you all of the time._

_I won't be able to sit as a proper mother and wipe your tears away when you have nightmares nor be able to kiss away the pain when you are to take a tumble._

_But I can do the best I can to run the country with Arthur and visit you as frequently as I can._

_So take care when I am gone, I will write to you as best as I can. I will_

_Make sure I send my love each time._

_With kindest regards,_

_Alice Kirkland_

Amelia opened her eyes, those light cerulean blue orbs popped themselves open. They had done so due to the fact it was almost sun rise. Amelia looked out of her, and Alfred's little home. Her little pudgy toddler fingers reached out to the sunset as she giggled. Not knowing much of a dialect, besides the ones of the locals she was silent, only to be aquatinted with mindless babble of a toddler. She was much to young to speak. As was her brotherly figure. Alfred was sound asleep next to her, she simply looked out ignoring his presence. The cave framing her beautiful sunrise.

She couldn't ever have thought of waking this early but she couldn't help herself. It was obviously spectacular to see. Her eyes lit up as she giggled yet again, reaching a hand out as if the melting colors could be touched. She wished to grab them so...but even this way she was unable to do so. She exhaled in a bit of a whine. Her eyes water in the slightest but she wouldn't let the tears escape. That would be entirely unreasonable. She let out a exhale of a huff and dragged the back side of her arm across her eyes. It left the softest dew upon the palish skin of her arm.

She wanted to go and touch the sunrise, but that was indeed impossible.

She then stood wobbling on her small toddler legs. She walked to the beginning of the cave and smiled allowing her legs to dangle from the edge of the cave. It was a lovely little place to dwell. That was if you could climb, it was suspended off a cliff. There was a small platform a few inches across to the right of them. There didn't seem to be any way to get across but it you could secure your fingers over the small ledge and propel yourself just enough to shuffle your body to the platform. You needed a bit more upper body strength that if she had been a normal child them she wouldn't have had.

Her small tuffs of her blond locks puffed up from her head as she ran her fingers through it quite absently. She looked at her brotherly figure. Before leaning down and touching his cheek she turned away. She sighed and blinked her blue eyes and then looked down below to see the waves crash around below her feet. The salt sent a smell that wavered upon her.

She begun to look over to the platform a few feet away. Securing her fingers on the side of the wall she began to climb across the path using her hands to swing herself across each side of the narrow path. She was honestly embarking upon danger. She was hanging fifty to ninety feet above the ground by her fingers. It took her a long while to get herself over to the other side.

If she hadn't been an abnormal child she would have fallen and plummeted to her most certain death. But she was different from other girls, from other children in the most part. Alfred was as well, but no one of the local tribes knew this. They would detest the children if they found they were nothing but white skinned myths. There had been stories of the children from time to time appearing near the coast of the country but no one had ever interacted with them. They were thought to be spiteful spirits of the dead waiting to take vengeance for their unrightfully young deaths.

Due to that they were usually alone to their own devices. They did as they pleased without fear of discrimination or injury. They were feared not loved, but fear was much more important than love, Amelia learnt that at a very young age.

She propelled herself up to the platform with her small chubby arms. She wobbled for a moment before getting high enough that she could plop her little stomach down upon the cold wetish surface of the rocky platform. She closed her eyes and made a small grunt of concentration as she exhaled deeply pushing herself up on this platform. Her little eyes begun to crack themselves open once she was wriggled up upon the platform enough so she could slide over on the platform sideways.

She exhaled deeply as he scraped her tummy against the rocks on the ground. Inhaling against the loose gravel she laid there for a few moments regaining herself. She was exhausted from the climb over. Alfred was much better at it then she. It was obvious, he was built in such a fashion that he was supposed to be physically capable of more then she.

She sighed after catching her breath and then pushed her smallish torso up so she could begin to hoist herself upward. Her eyes closed and her body ached softly as the muscles detested the way they bent. She sighed and began to climb up the short rock terrace to get to the main land. She smiled as the sun cascaded down upon her body.

It was early morning by now.

She was ready for the day. She felt the messy, wet dirt under her feet. It must have perspired last night. Because she felt a gentle mud cake her feet in a soft mask as she walked. She exhaled a sigh in a sharp manner. She wanted to do some exploring today. Alfred and herself had lived in the eastern part of their country. Near the coast of course, but she could never do too much exploring.

It was like a modern day drug to her, so addictive. So everyday before Alfred woke she would go out and try to find more about her forests, about her land! She wanted to know it from the back of her hand. She giggled softly wiping the dirt off the front of her gown looking garb. She didn't really remember when she had first gotten it but it surely had a lot of wear and tear. Dirt stains and rips into the bottom. But she didn't know any better. She didn't care.

She heard the soft wind in her ears and sighed softly of relief. It felt so calming. Her longish hair blew behind her as she walked. The short tuffs stuck out in a wavy fashion at all obscure angles. She walked to the beach area today. The sand crinkled beneath her feet and stuck itself to the dirt between her toes and running around her heels. There didn't seem to be many people about. Maybe that meant it was to be a good day. Maybe she wouldn't have to deal with the locals fears today.

She saw something strange in the distance today. It made her jaw drop. It was a monster! It had to be! She squealed and backed up until she hit the ground. She felt the sand run up her thighs and burn her legs as she slid back in it.

It had to be a creature of the darkness. It was big, and sitting there watching her! It must have been fifty feet tall! She bit her lip and felt salty tears of fear climb down her cheeks. The big monster was brown, mighty and it seemed to have a woman stapled to the front. A pale woman. Much like herself but older. Her legs shook so greatly it disabled her from running. She sat there fear apparent in her face as she stared at it. There was no plausible way to explain this creature. It was gigantic! The gods were surely punishing her! It seemed to rock back and forth with the waves. It had an curved part at the bottom and several sticks protruding from the top of it.

She gasped in air as she saw the big monster had bore but a child. A little monster and it was heading right for her. She opened her lips and then closed her eyes she shouted the only word she knew,"ALFIE!" As loud as she could. She shook with fear hoping it had woken him from his sleep. The creature drew closer and closer and it made her sniffle and begin to cry. She didn't know what to do. It was scary. The salt water poured from her eyes as she saw it approaching the shore.

She was dead she knew it...

She scooted over to try and hide as she heard the unintelligible words drift through her mind of a language she had yet to understand.

"Arthur I bloody told you! Were far in front of the god damn French! Calm the bleeding hell down!" She heard. It was feminine.

She heard a few sighs of exasperation and then a sudden growl. This one made her skin crawl. It was masculine,"Alice! Jesus! I told you not even to come on this journey! Four months with you on a ship isn't my ideal type of exploration!" It snapped,"I wouldn't want you and all of your hormones to bleed all over the sand- ow!"

Amelia didn't understand their words but they made her nervous in a way that she hadn't ever felt before. She heard footsteps now. These ones were familiar to her. They were her savior. It was Alfred, she suddenly heard the sound of sand scraping against the monsters babe's stomach. She heard Alfred running about and shivered. He didn't know where she was. She then heard commotion.

She couldn't move for what seemed like was forever concealed only by her silence. She closed her eyes tightly and then heard Alfred's high pitched squeal. She whimpered and then stood sniffling. She had to save him, that's all she could do. She stumbled up and then seeing Alfred surrounded by a few people.

She was so frightened as she heard their voices speaking to him. She knew he wouldn't understand their strange language either.

Standing on shaky legs she begun to run over to them. She pushed past their legs and ran to Alfred hugging him tightly. She felt his salty tears mingle with his shoulder. They were both confused, they didn't understand these people. They were confused. She looked directly into the eyes of one of the men. He had a thick set of eyebrows, sparkling green eyes that spoke to her with sympathy. That along with messy blond hair that looked as if it had been ruffled out of place. Alfred clung to her and cried.

She felt her salty tears smear the mans image as he looked over the two. He gave most of the men some sort of command and she shivered hearing his voice. They were all suddenly beginning to walk off.

"Alice...you know kids right...can you help...I mean...this ones looking at me..." He said unsteadily.

A woman appeared out of what seemed like thin air. Amelia was mesmerized, she was so gorgeous. Amelia looked up at her with less fear then the man. She still held onto Alfred tightly and just watched this female.

"Arthur! This doesn't help at all-" "Look she likes you!" There was a loud huff and then then man and woman began to get closer. "Hello love, do you speak English?" She asked.

Amelia not knowing at all what that meant just shivered and cringed away. The man stools in the behind her and that made Amelia scared. Alfred though had stopped crying. He had began to shift so he could see the mystery people as well.

"I don't think they understand...Arthur what do we do...?" Amelia watched her as she bent down getting on the toddlers level. "My name is Alice." She said pointing to herself. Amelia seemed a little less than scared. Alfred had grabbed Amelia's hand timidly looking at the man behind the woman. They both shook a little as they stood.

Amelia closed her eyes and then replayed the woman's words through her brain. She then pointed her finger at herself as Alice had. "Alice..." She said. She got a slight giggle,"No! No! I am Alice!" She said laughing softly.

The man stood in the background looking uncomfortable. He cleared his throat a few times. Alfred had drifted closer to him a bit. He still scared Amelia quite a bit. But the female was a bit more comforting. "Arthur get over here they might be like us! They look nothing like the other people around..." Amelia didn't know what she was saying but the man came over and she felt her stature shrink.

"See...I make them uneasy..." Arthur complained, he looked a bit cross with the fact. Alfred just giggled, Amelia wanted to hide behind her brother now. Arthur exhaled and bent down now as well. "I am Arthur..." He said pointing to himself. "England, we are England..." He then repeated.

Amelia felt the foreign words stand out in her mind but then something came over her a spell. It made her feel weak. She blinked softly and looked at the two. Her gentle feminine palms began to sweat out worry as she looked at the woman confusedly and more so the man. Her heart rate spiked and she tried to back up pulling Alfred with her. She stiffened and looked as is she was going to cry. She then felt a sudden pulse of pain in her hand. It made her whimper and cry out. She backed up so far with Alfred she could feel the wetness of the water on the back of her feet.

The lady and the man looked quite confused as well. The children had been fine but a second ago. But now the children seemed to be what was compared to a panic attack. The woman, what had she called herself, Alice? Yes, Alice. Alice looked pointedly at the girl and then exhaled softly reaching a hand out to her. But something struck into Amelia's mind. There was a mark there. It was the only thing that stood out in this. It was a rectangle, with a few lines diagonal through it. Amelia then felt the by burning in her hand increase as she cried out pulling it back to her chest. She let go of her brothers hand and then shivered and closed her eyes.

"W-Wait- Alice what do we do?!"

"Like I would bloody know! Your face probably scared them!"

"Oh belt up! I was simply keeping distance!"

Alfred seemed to be acting in the same peculiar way. She felt her eyes sag and begin to close as she fell with her brother.

They simply fell into the sand.

She couldn't remember what was said next but the last thing she heard was.

"I suppose we've found the country..."


	3. Chapter 3

_Pain is no evil, unless it conquers us._

_-Charles Kingsley_

The thing about waking from a nightmare is to bring relief to yourself, give a sense of thank the lord that is over, But what if you wake from one nightmare into another. The feelings is ground shaking, and just straight up terrifying. Living the nightmare through your life, never to be saved or relieved of the fear that plagues your body.

This was one of the times where there was no relief, Alfred felt his head start to pound as the voice on the video spoke clearly to all of them, she was smiling, _She's probably proud of herself…I'll kill that girl…What was her name…? I just said it, i know! How could I-,_ His thoughts were cut off by the aching of his head, he felt so dizzy all of a sudden, he couldn't focus on the girls voice, he had just said her name but now it seemed to foreign to him. Like he was trying to read Chinese… he felt sick all of a sudden, his eyes burned and his heart rate picked up, he heard loud shouting, in many different languages at the screen that projected all of their faces through technology to the woman on the other end who began to laugh.

"—Give us him back, hoser!—"

"You cant detain a country!"

"What is wrong with you—?"

Threats went on and on, America felt his own eyes drift to the screen, the lady, she was looking right at him. She was getting a little blurry so he thought he may have had something wrong with his prescription. He blinked and leant a hand on the table. Distracting him from his aching head was anger, anger for this lady's arrogance. There was more shouting, screaming even, someone was crying, even his mid-mannered brother was getting revved up due to this. England had been a person, or country that had effected all of them. In a positive or negative way, some countries cared for him now, others disliked him entirely, however he was one of their own, and had been responsible for wether intentional or not making most of the countries what they were today.

Especially America, how could he just walk away like nothing had happened, the screaming continued and america slammed his fists down on the desk. He struggled to contain his composure, his anger was overwhelming him, he could hardly stand it.

The room had suddenly gone silent, all eyes were on him. He looked won at the wooden table, he hadn't bothered to contain his strength, there was a lengthy crack going down two places and it joined, his eyes widened and he felt himself swallow tears, his eyes looked up at the lady, who's name he had known only a few moments ago, but now it was gone, she was only a face.

"You poisonous slut.." He hissed the words as if he was spitting out poison, the youthful country hadn't dealt with anything like this before, he felt anger burning fresh in his soul," You think you can defeat a country by capturing his rep. You are-" he didn't get to finish she smiled,"I will make you all feel the fear, the fear you let whilst you were young. I have gained power since you last saw me… You will-" America began to get closer to the screen," We have never seen you before you filthy whore! Go back to where the fuck you came from! I have people in my country who can track your IP adress and we will know exactly where you are! We'll fucking kill you!" he bellowed, his eyes shone nothing but an uncontrollable rage, everyone had gone silent. The female in the video seemed to do so as well, she looked frozen for a moment.

Maybe he had caught her off guard with his shouting, but it seemed like she had a different reason for her shock, it was almost as if she was hurt. "Alfred F Jones, I am an archangel of pain, though you seem to have forgotten me…" She seemed to pause for a moment,"It will only fuel my fire, and each and everyone of you is to repent! To pay for the things you have done in the past." Her beautiful features twisted into a certain pain and she exhaled sharply," I will make each one of you weep, you will turn into nothing but a sniveling mess of pity!" She began to yell now, her hair was pulled back into a relaxed ponytail to begin with she looked like she was pulling at it, she was rubbing the blond, and hilgihted hair into a mess, she let out a small gasp, her eyes bore small tears in the corners,they shone sadly, all the while she was preparing and insane laugh."And you will suffer… You will all suffer…" she whispered at this point, then the screen was filled with white noise, and static.

She was gone just like that.

America jolted forward and extended a hand to the screen. She made him dizzy, he exhaled softly and he felt himself look down at the flooring.

His gentle brother slowly put a hand on his shoulder,"America…?"

Now, America wasn't feeling like himself, he wouldn't have ever snapped at his gentle, kind brother. But America felt this sickness make his head pound and he felt his heart race in his chest,"Fuck off." He hissed and then broke the grip, the room was silent apart from a few gasps that were in surprise.

"Now America-" A thickly accented voice was cut off by an angry American one," I said fuck off! I don't need someone telling me shit right now! I'm gonna find some god damn heroic way to save Britain's ass and beat the shit out of this human." He said with a bit more force. It sounded like something he would usually say but there was something about his voice that help anger and maturity. Alfred seemed to look upset as he stomped from the room, he left with his brother looking shell shocked, he clutched his fingers into the soft bears fur, then bowing his head he sniffled and tears rose in his eyes. After a while they were shut, and running in the opposite direction of his brotherly figure.

He disappeared as well.

They left the meeting room in a state of absolute chaos.

Arthur wasn't quite sure where he was when he came to, He let out a deep breath shakily, it was as if he had suddenly forgotten how to do the simple task that kept him alive. He took a few minutes to inhale at a semi-proper . It all hurt, his lungs, his chat, everything in total ached in an unfamiliar way. He had been through worse, he could admit that, the pain of being a country was half of the time unbearable.

After a few moments he concluded that his vision had taken a turn for the worse, it gave him a distorted image of the world, the room he was in. It was simply horrifically burred, he let out a gentle sigh to this and then tilted his head in the slightest. He just lacked the energy to move much else, for al he knew he could be bound to the clock tower. Though he wouldn't have care in the slightest.

He sniffled in the cold crisp air, Oh how pathetic he felt, reduced to nothing but a mass of barely breathing rubble. He felt the throbbing in his chest getting slightly better,he couldn't breathe all as well as he had only hours ago. But even in this messy semi-conscious state, he vowed revenge. It was all he could do to save his dignity. He had firstly been beaten by a woman whom had been taller than he, and it had been a human.. of all creatures to give him a beating! A human!

Well she could be sub-human, he did intact recall hitting her a few times with his ancient weapon, but she hadn't reacted in the slightest, if he hadn't been drugged he was sure he could fend the brilliant woman, Her blazing blond hair was an image that would scar his mind for a small part of his miserable life. He closed his burning eyes feeling the absence of raw tears in his eyes.

he parted his cracked and chapped lips to let in a better breath, his eyes remained closed but they danced behind their swollen lids. It wouldn't be too long until arthur felt better, he was a country for heaven-sake, he couldn't smiley let this moment of weakness define him.

His muscles protested as he began to lift his aching arms. The muscles burned a red hot pain into his body making them shake the slightest bit. He made a soft sound of rejection as he to his surprise found no restraints around his wrists, he then opened his closed eyes and looked around the room for a moment, It was all a blur of his mind, He then gasped feeling pain fill his mind but he ignored it to the best of his ability, he breathed in and out in a rapid fashion. It hurt his chest but he prevailed, feeling the mundane pain reminded him of of when he was a child. When everyone was against him, when he could hardly walk five meters without someone declaring war upon his newly formed country.

He breathed out softly feeling his entire body cringe, and protest against the movement. Maybe it was stupid to move with the knifing pain that remained in his chest and ran through his sore arms, he didn't know, but he wanted to try to move. He let out about the saddest breath that he could, his eyes had been puffy with induced sleep. His hair was a mess of freshly cleaned blond locks that stuck out every which way. He was finally in a sitting position and was panting. The world twisted and turned about, he blinked a few times to try and clear his vision. He felt some sharp pain in his arm and then groaned gently.

Exhaling he ran a hand over his arm and then felt a bump sticking into his arm, Maybe it was drugs, or maybe he was meant to find it. He exhaled loudly and then yanked the thing out of his arm, It made him ultimately dizzy, He leant to his left side and seemed to tumble out of the bed. He exhaled loudly and then made a loud thump on the ground. He felt as if he was vibrating as he looked around the room. Everything shook, his vision his body, it was as if there was an earth quake in this room. He quickly clenched into a painful ball, and let out a small gasp of air. It at was starting to go fuzzy, he could hardly breath and before he knew it everything started to go dark.

But, before he totally faded out he swore he could have heard the clicking of heels on the linoleum tile…

_Click, Clack, Click, Clack…_

The sound drifted through his mind as everything went black.

________________

 

_June 3 1678_

_Dearest Amelia,_

_I believe you are growing and blossoming into a lovely young lady. Still having your child like composure at this age, your colony is but fifty or so years old at this point. We had the greatest success in teaching you our language, teaching you to walk, and all the distasteful things you do to nourish a child properly._

_I feel pity that Arthur and myself are leaving so soon. For a moment i felt as if you and your brother were our family. Biologically I mean to say of course. I wish you could come bad to the motherland. Oh what a beautiful sight it is ( not to sound boastful of my own country). Someday we will all join together once we get out of war with those french bastards, do exude my language my dear child._

_But we will be returning soon. I will most certainly mail this once i step foot onto British soil._

_Stay beautiful my dear daughter._

_With kindest regards,_

_Alice Kirkland._

How old do you have to be to remember the feeling of that first bout of freedom on? Maybe you were left at home when your parents went out to drink their hearts out, maybe it was when your parents were late from coming or going to their work. Or maybe you found the freedom when you ran from someone who had been sufficing you for years on end. For Amelia it was when she and Alfred had been alone. Now Alfred hated being separated from their patently figures, but Amelia, Amelia liked it.

She sat by the window in her room, she was alone of course. She was brushing her short feminine hair. It went down past her chin to around the middle of her neck, that is in length of course. It had the most brilliant unbleached blond color to it. It was like looking directly at the pale sun. She was full of joy and giggling.

"One-two-three-four-five," She counted with each stroke of the brush on her shiny hair. She giggled as she did so looking around the posh room. It was perfect at that time period for a girl of seven to nine years. Her innocence bound off of her like rays of sunshine, she giggled with each stroke hitting a pitch that only someone of her age could hit. Not of course her actual age.

She heard a slight knock on her hard wood door and smiled. She walked to her desk and sat her hair brush down. Though she didn't mind being alone, she always found it a treat when Alice and Arthur dropped by.

Upon opening her door she saw her brother. He looked like he was upset,"Whats wrong Alfie-" She was cut off then and there by a sharp and angry remark from the younger boy. " They arent coming… not this week, not next week, not next month!" Amelia drew her head back and looked the boy up and down her wavy hair bounced along side of each of her cheeks. She tilted her head downward to see what he was holding in his clenched in his left seemed to be some sort of paper, maybe a letter.

She put her hand on his arm and then exhaled gently. He seemed to be close to tears,"Alfie look…They are coming back sometime..just not today-" She was again cut off by her teary eyed male counterpart. "No! They never come back! They just keep lying to us!" He was shouting now. It was a bit loud and the noise rang throughly through Amelia's bare ears making her cringe. HIs anger frightened her sometimes. She didn't know what he was thinking or what he was planning on doing.

Alfred looked at her and he sniffled,"Why don't they love us Amelia?!" He whimpered out as he sniffled. He said something else and Amelia could understand in the slightest what was being said. She sighed softly and grabbed both of his wrists and pulled him over to her bed.

Once they were both seated she tucked a strand of his hair behind his ear,"Don't cry Alife it is hardly masculine." She teased gently as he sniffled and wiped his eyes,"I cant stand to see you cry…" She said after a slight pause of her words. She then hugged him burying her face into his childlike, bony shoulder. She took a deep breath in and then closed her eyes nuzzling his shoulder softly,"If you cry I'm going to cry…" She whispered heavily, her hidden eyes spoke sadness and feeling. Twas almost as if she felt him on a spiritual level.

She then closed her eyes. "Alfie please…don't cry…" She whispered. There was a dense silence for a few moments. She couldn't stand the silence, so she looked up. His eyes were downcast, he didn't notice her looking up at all. She felt her hands tremble in her lap. She felt something strange tinge in her chest.

Blinking her eyes a few times she exhaled deeply through her nose, some of the man-made breeze touched Alfred's tanned skin and he looked up. Around his beautiful blue eyes had turned red with sadness. He then exhaled and looked at her wiping his eyes weakly,"I'm stopping…don't l-look at me like that…" he said wiping his nose. Amelia felt her heart beat in her ears. She opened her mouth and then looked away. What was wrong with her?

She looked up at the filing and felt the feeling overwhelm her. She could hardly stand it. She lent her face in looking at him more closely She felt as if she was driven by a strong, rapid impulse that caused her heart to beat as quickly as it did. He looked at her confused. Her eyes downcast to his lips, they moved a few times but she didn't hear at all what he said. When she tuned back in her heart felt weak, her eyes were teared up and she had her mouth was slightly parted and she looked like she was going to cry. She didn't understand what this feeling was inside of her. But her body kept leaning in forward to the other as he remained motionless.

Then she heard his voice pulling her out of her day dreams, out of her stupor.

"Amelia…"

She gasped and then bit her lip running across the room and out the door.

What was she doing what was wrong with her?!

"Amelia?!"

"Amelia, where are you going?!"

"Amelia come back don't leave me alone?"

She wasn't sure where she was going, and she didn't know where she wanted to go, but she wanted to get away all of a sudden.

Her heart pound rapidly in her chest as she let out a soft whimper and settled she would go outside and hide in the orchard surrounding the house.

She almost got there…

She was suddenly stopped by a brutal fall on top of someone else.

"Amelia-"

She had her eyes closed for a moment, not letting the tears leak from her childlike eyes. Once she was sure none of the tears would come pouring out of her eyes she felt herself being lifted from the person by someone else.

Her eyes flew open and she looked around with panic coloring her features. She then felt strong,strong hands that couldn't entirely be human. She knew who it was. She felt the slender, pale haired man, set her down on her bottom as she looked at whom she had knocked over.

Once taking her off of the woman, Arthur had helped her up. Alice had said something to the girl but she didn't repond for a moment. Her heart was beating so quickly in her chest, it actually hurt. She then looked up hearing the classic thump of feet hitting the steps.

She then dusting off her dress curtsied politely. "I apologize…" she murmured bowing her head politely. She felt so distant at the moment.

Alfred was much less concerned about posture, and composure. He ran to the both of them hugging them tightly. She would have done the same, if it was not for the embarrassment that lit her cheeks up a terrible red.

Alice looked at her strangely."Amelia love why were you running…" The embarrassment and guilt didn't go away, it remained there making her cheeks entirely red."i thought i heard something in the attic up stairs." She whispered lamely. Her head was somewhat bowed.'

It was silent for a moment and then there was a sudden deep chuckle, she opened her eyes and looks up to see Arthur giving her a dear smile, and alice a worried gaze, she hadn't bothered to look at Alfred out of the embarrassment for her earlier actions.

Maybe he didn't care or notice the closeness of her face. Or the way she looked. It wasn't like she got too close.

Arthur had by now picked up the little boy and was swinging him around,"Haha! Iggy! Stop! I can't!" He giggled as the Brit flung him around. He was laughing too. " Oh come on! You can take more of this! You are a big strong colony!" He said to the little boy. His smile was wide, and unyielding. He looked so happy. Then there was the protest from Alice.

"Arthur put him down! You are going to drop him!"

Amelia watched them with a heavy heart.

She had the sudden sense of displacement, of rejection, of mistakes….

And she couldn't stand it.

"Arthur you're going to drop him!"

"Oh lighten up, you bloody woman!"

"Hahaha Iggy!"

"What did you just call me?!"

Amelia couldn't take it, she put her hands up to her ears and then ran away making thundering footsteps. She ran off to the door and threw it open running outside. She began to feel something wet upon her cheek. She looked up and it was raining. The sky had formed angry clouds that thundered down upon the land. She then took a deep breath and before she knew it, she too was crying. She covered her face and ran a hand through her hair before running off. She heard the cries of protest behind her.

"Amelia come back-"

"Where the bloody hell are you-?"

But she didn't say around long enough to hear any of it. She ran with no exact direction. The rain was soaking through her hair and through her clothes. She was soaked to the bone in a short time. It wasn't Alice and Arthurs fault they couldn't find her quickly. She traveled the land every day. It was her land.

It was her land.

She soon found herself standing on the shore of the eastern beach. It was still raining, she soon enough plopped down on the ground. The sand clung to her dress as the water washed away her tears. She felt a bit of coldness seep into her and she shivered as she cried. Soon enough her tears had dried.

But the rain hadn't, the rain kept pouring down on her body. Her mind felt confusion develop over it, and after a few hours she heard some sort of hoofs knocking against the ground.

They had found her.

She sighed and sat up trying to brush the sand from herself. She hadn't heard footsteps until she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Mind if I join you?"

She looked up hearing the sugary voice in her ear. She shrugged and then closed her eyes." Splendid!" She heard. She didn't look at Alice but she could feel the older girls gaze on her. " I don't really fancy the weather when its like this. What about you? What brings you out here int he rain?" Amelia didn't say anything for a moment. She closed her eyes.

"Im confused… thats all…" She whispered hardly audible.

"What are you confused about?" She nudged the little girl with her elbow. " I mean, Im not god, but i do know a lot." Amelia sniffled and then looked at alice.

"Will you answer a question of mine?" Amelia asked her voice wavering.

"Of course love! I'll answer anything!" Alice complied happily. Her eyes shone softly against the pale light that shown through the clouds. Amelia couldn't take it anymore all of the curiosity was overwhelming. "What do you call this?" She asked. She didn't give alice the time to comply. She grabbed the sides of slices face with her smallish, child hands and pulled her face to Alice's. Suddenly the small colonist and the British woman were locked in a kiss. Amelia had closed her eyes so she wouldn't see the look on Alice's face.

Alice however had kept her eyes open. They widened and then they sighed. The brilliant emerald hues didn't reject the other but didn't accept it either. It didn't last long. It only took a few seconds for Amelia to pull back.

There was that stomping sound against the ground as Alice looked away from Amelia. She had a forlorn look on her face," It is called a kiss…" She said.

Then it was silent.


	4. Chapter 4

July 21 1750  
My dearest Amelia,  
I know that I haven't exchanged letters with you in the longest amount of time. I am at fault for that. I have simply been so busy with work and travel that I have not had the time to do so. I can hardly stand being away from you and Alfred, but there are more seeds to sow into the fertile land of the world. Arthur sends his apologies as well to you and your brother.  
I suppose you have grown much in the time that I have been away. I can only imagine what you look like now. I hope you act in the way that a proper lady would. Sit up straight at the table, use utensils, don't speak unless spoken to, and all of those rules you have been taught by your nurse maid and your governess.  
I apologize for the shortness of the letter, I have some consulting to do with the king later on and with some of the people. So my love it is now I must say ta-ta.  
With kindest regards,  
Alice Kirkland.  
Amelia ran down the dirt path that was near her home. Mud was caked over her shirt, in her hair, and all about. She let out a bright laugh and continued to run barefoot down the path. Her eyes shone brightly like stars in the sky. But she was filthy, she had fallen in the mud earlier and was simply covered in it. She was the epitome of freedom. Her hair blew wildly in the cool Philadelphian air, she smiled and then yawned gently as she made her way back to her home.  
Her bare feet slapped against the cobble stones in the town. She smiled and waved at people who walked around. Some scowled at the dirty girl, but a few others smiled gently and waved back at her. Her body was seeming to age at thirteen or fourteen. She wasn't that old, but she wasn't that young. She took a deep breath in and out as she ran to the gates of her home.  
She looked at the man who guarded the gate to there home. "Good morning Robert!" The British man looked at her for a moment and then let out a low hearty chuckle. His smile was contagious, his cheek bones rose in such a way that made him more appealing to talk to and look at. He had distinguishably old features. Some thin grey hairs on his head, styled mustache, and most distinguishing the old man glasses. He then smiled and opened the gate up for Amelia.  
She waved goodbye as she walked through the gate. Her posture was unbelievably happy. It wouldn't be for long but she was happy. She inhaled deeply through her nose and let it out through her mouth, she then coughed out roughly. She slowly but surely began to open the door to her growing home upon approaching it. She smelt sawdust in the air, along with the screaming smell of bricks. Alfred, looking a bit older than she, had begun to expand the house hold. The people were working day and night to add a second wing to the current smallish house. She thought it was completely frivolous spending, but hey, he was the main representative, she was merely at the time just another female. They were used for birthing purposes and that was much of the extent… It was cruel that she could never voice her opinions.  
She walked in the door and got no look from any of the guards. She walked in to see the ending of a meeting with someone,"Yes— Oh, hello Mrs. Amelia…." The tallish man said looking down at her. She felt her blood run cold. "Hello sir.." These men always made her nervous as hell. They were very sophisticated and ritzy. "General— Uh…" Alfred looked over at her. Had he gotten taller in the last few moments.  
"General Washington, Excuse her," he seemed to pause looking at the muddy girl with a half approving and half disapproving face," Wears… She had just been out, ah, drawing the water from the well… I shall escort her back to the kitchen…" Amelia's eyes widened and her brow furrowed. The kitchen?! Did he honestly just say that?! Alfred grabbed her hand and then began to pull her. In all the while the general chuckled and bowed respectfully at the waist to them,"Yes.. Pleasure seeing you loves!" he called. Amelia was fuming to be honest.  
Her face had turned entirely red and her eyes looked like from the temperature of her face, would make them melt. Once inside Amelia yanked her hand away," The kitchen Alfred!? Honestly?!" She shrieked, her voice drew up a few octaves as she glared at him. "Ami, calm down! I had to look good in front of—" She drew her hand back and smacked her brother on the face, as hard as she could.  
"Don't you ever demean me in such a fashion! Ever again! Ever Alfred! Do you know how hard it is—" "How hard it is?! I am the bloody face of the country Amelia! You have it easy! You don't have to talk about the rebellion—" Amelia gasped and then it felt like her lungs couldn't hold the air once she took it in," Rebellion? What are you talking about Alfie…" She whispered. "We could be hanged for treason if speaking about it!" "You forget that we can't die Amelia! Why were we born? We're we born to be ruled by someone who cannot find the time to check on us? We've been going pretty well with our government, and they wont give us a representative in the parliament! What should we do?! When is the last time Alice wrote you a letter?! Or Arthur has come to visit us?! Its been years! We're on our own now Amelia! I intend to fight to remain on our own! Some of the leaders are thinking about—" Amelia felt as if she had been shot. Her face was pale, her eyes were a bit glassy, and she could hardly breath. She felt a cold draft run in and beat her frail dirty skin.  
He continued to talk for a short while before he noticed her freezing up. Her delicate feminine hand was up against her mouth as her heart pounded. She felt sick,"Amelia…Lets go get you a little rest, yeah?" Alfred said gently as he touched her dirty shoulder with his clean hand. She didn't say anything but she nodded softly."I am quite tired.." She whispered in a watery voice. Alfred then wrapped an arm around her shoulders and let her head lean on his chest as they walked to the staircase. " I'll have one of the servants draw you a bath…" He said before kissing the top of her head in a way that only he could do.  
She felt her body filled with warmth and sadness. She watched him walk off and slowly began to walk up the stairs. Her head was a bit fuzzy and she looked around sadly. Everything she knew was beginning to fall down. Like a castle that had been shot down by cannonballs and all of the sort. She walked up the stairs and upon reaching her room she slowly slipped out of her clothes, she looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. Gently touching the curves of her hips she sighed. She hated these feminine curses. It was because of this that no one would listen to her. She couldn't hold back her tears anymore. She made a point not to cry in front of anyone, this was because she couldn't be viewed as a weak person, even she couldn't be viewed as her sex. She touched her long muddy hair and then her heart hurt. Why was she cursed to be this creature?!  
She balled up her fists, until she hear a knock at the door. She immediately pulled her dress shirt back up to her body to see only a servant who bowed respectfully,"Your bath is ready Mrs. Jones." She then smiled and nodded. "Thank you Christine.." She said slipping on a robe and beginning to walk toward the bath.  
This was a cruel, cruel world.  
___________  
It was all terribly dark for Arthur. One moment he was trying to get away from a young looking girl, in her twenties maybe. Her hair looked familiar but her face was somewhat foreign to him. One moment she was outside the bars, the next she was on top of him staring down with her crystal eyes. Arthurs eyes widened but he couldn't break the gaze of the beauty. Her eyes spoke to him, he could hardly hear what she was saying but it rang through his mind clear as a bell.  
"Arthur…"  
He heard her soft and melodic tone in his ears and he just stared up at her. Bullocks! I can't move… His mind screamed as he just stared at her. HIs body leant unto hers and he was almost touching her nose with his own. He couldn't say anything but his betraying body nodded to what she said.  
"Arthur… You follow my command… yes..?" She asked. She pressed her body against his in a manner that would make a man of his sophistication blush with embarrassment for her and for himself. But he couldn't blush. He could only respond to her in a hoarse voice that hadn't been used in days."Yes, I do as you…say…"  
What?! No! Have I just sold my soul to the devil's incarnate?! I don't want to follow this bewitching woman's pleas!  
His mind screamed what his body rejected to hear. "I follow you… Ms.—" He was cut off by a smile and a nod as she leant in," Amelia… Just call me Amelia doll." Something about the name seemed familiar to Arthur but his mind couldn't pick out what it was. She was looking down at him dangerously,"You'll never leave me alone you understand." She whispered to him. All Arthurs body could do was nod." Yes Ms. Amelia… I am your servant…" He whispered," I will protect you with all my might…"  
What…?! What am I doing…?! I want to stop… But I can't…. Is she right…? Am I to serve her…?  
His eyes soon closed as he felt something in his heart leap forward along with his body. His mind was shocked at this action, but he slowly pulled her into a soft and passionate kiss. His lips tingled with her presence. He felt something painful in his chest as he was slammed against her. Her soft breasts were pressed against his chest. But his chest hurt.  
It felt like someone was breaking all of his ribs and binding them back together. It hurt so, but he couldn't move, that only made it worse. He was locked in a kiss with death. It felt so terrible he would have cringed in pain but his body wouldn't allow it. The pain was getting so bad his heart began to beat faster so he could attempt to heal the pain in his chest.  
His eyes slowly opened as his pain and his mind eased. His eyes were haunting though. Like his entire soul had been sucked out for a moment only to be shoved back in but he was different. He felt different. So different..  
His heart ached, sure but he felt much better than he had before. As he kissed this girl… He changed. Into something different, something more.  
—-  
Francis couldn't remember how he got on the ground, coughing and wheezing. He could hardly breathe, it was awful. Mon dieu! Aidez-moi! His mind screamed what his body couldn't. He was there simply breathing in and out with much difficulty. It hurt greatly, but he remembered this feeling, His blond hair was disheveled and he was a hacking mess. Fluid from his lungs came out of his mouth from his lungs. He felt like death. In those blueish eyes there was a pain. There was no fright, he wasn't scared at all, just hurting.  
He felt as if he was dying but he knew he wouldn't. He had come close the last time that he felt this gas in his system. But he wasn't dying, through all of the pain, his mind began to drift away. To an earlier time, a different one.  
Before he knew it he was falling unconscious. He was lucky, it didn't hurt when you were sleeping. Well at least he hoped it wouldn't.  
It was dark, but in that cold dark distance you could see a fire. He heard the sounds of people screaming from the site of that fire. It was all a bit distant. He stood staring at the fire, blond hair waving in the wind. He felt like he was holding the torch. He was young, not too young but maybe looking the age of fourteen or younger. The light red bow that had been holding up his hair was suddenly harshly blown out by this terrible wind.  
It was then that he heard a noise. It sounded like a choked cry. He turned his head in a mild mannered fashion, and his smallish hand went to his belt where his sword was always sitting. He began to hear a small sniveling sound. That of what a child would make, he gave a deep sigh if boredom. It was so troubling to have someone try to sneak up on the winning side.  
His lips parted as he slowly shouted,"Sors de là, montre-toi !" He didn't get a response. He walked over to the small bit of foliage that separated him from this strange and inquiring noise. His teeth grit and he looked rather upset or angered. Then like a spoiled child he slashed at the vines. They seemed to fall all at once to reveal a small person.  
A boy.  
He looked around ten.  
Maybe younger but Francis couldn't tell.  
"Lay…A bloody…Hand on…me…and…you'll…r-regret it…" The beaten and bruised boy said through grit teeth. "Anglais?" He asked softly." What?! Do I have to speak in bloody French! G-Get out of here! Or I'll deliver the final blow frog!" the messy haired boy yelled. Blood was leaking from his lips which were cracked, his whole face was rather beaten to be frank. Who was this? Was it just another Englishman? Well, more of a boy if Francis was to speak. But he looked so much younger than Francis. What was a boy doing in the war?  
Francis walked over to the weak and shriveled creature and from somewhere in his armor he pulled out a small handkerchief. Some woman had tossed it at him. It was nothing but a strip of cloth."What is,'frog,' anglais?" Sure he spoke English. He had to, it was part of his job as a nation. He just didn't understand all of it was all. He then bent down on his knees his metallic armor clinking about. "D-Don't touch me you menace!" The boy yelled. "Do the calm, little boy, I am only trying to help—." "No you've done quite enough helping! Stupid! Ow—. OW—-! That hurts fruitcake!" The little boy howled as Fran touched his lower swollen lip with the piece of fabric.  
He was intriguing, naïve in a way. He protested Francis help but in the end, he accepted it. But that didn't mean that he would stop complaining," Ow! Stupid Frank! Quit it!" He grumbled. "Non. Now, what are you doing in a war field little boy? Isn't it dangerous for someone so young to be in the field of battle?" He said in a parental tone. He continued to dab at the little Englishman's face.  
"It's my country that got kicked in the ass bloke! I'm the bloody rep. Or country—! Bloody fuck will you stop that!?" he growled. "Non! Quiet yourself! Now what did you say you were—" "England! Thats what my bloody name is stupid!" He said. Fran just furrowed his brows. He then slowly helped the little Englishman up. "Who are you—? Argh…I feel dizzy…" The Englishman then brought his attention back to the frenchman," What do they call you by?" He asked in his small, pre-puberty voice. "Call me… Francia…" He said smallish and waiting for this little Englishman whom was meant to be his enemy.  
The little Brits eyes widened and he backed up." I-I….Next time we meet it will be on the battle field! I'm going to beat the bleeding filth from you! Stupid frank!" Fran's lips parted and he was about to yell. But his lips only parted in a smile," Oui, I will look forward to this…." Francis whispered. Then the little English hobbled off with haste. He looked valiant as he did so. Francis felt his heart beat quickly as he watched him go.  
He looked forward to that next battle…  
—  
Alfred ran as fast as he could past the fence holding the two Italians. Trying to desperately get away from the building that still had gas seeping from each opening window of the building. It was terrifying. He had never gotten gassed! Sure plenty of his men in World War Two had fallen to it, but he had never seen a country succumb to it.  
The Northern Italian was gasping, wheezing, and coughing. He could most defiantly feel that the Italian was coughing up something on his back but he didn't care. He had to get all of them out of there, well at least the two that he could.  
The Southerner on the other hand was screaming and panicking and crying,"Let me go—!" He heard over and over in a thickly accented voice that held fright and fear. "Fratello! Fratello!" He screeched so loudly that his throat sounded raw, and scratchy. Alfred felt pity for him, he was freaking out. He wanted to do something to help but honestly this was the only thing that he could do to help the older nations. Once he was deep into the forest he stopped, coming to a skidding halt and almost toppling over onto a tree.  
He breathed heavily, but not too heavily. He could take a little run. But he panted softly trying to catch his breath. "Holy shit…. Holy shit…" He mumbled coughing and trying to keep his composure. He slowly put down Feliciano first. Since he was coughing so terrible. He set him down on the soft floor of the forest. The Italian immediately curled within himself and continued to cough up his lungs and the fluid in there.  
Alfred then struggled with the other Italian, he attempted to set the other Italian down carefully as he did his brother, but Lovino was in a panic. He tumbled to the ground as Alfred tried to set him down. As a result, Alfred got a lovely smack in the face with one of the Italians leather shoes.  
Cringing, he held his face and then rubbed his chin where he had gotten hit,"Calm down!" He yelled to the Italian who had fallen right on his rear. "Calm down!? You tell me calm down?!" the little Italians voice rose around what seemed like three octaves. He went from hang a calmish, melodic voice to having that of a child.  
He then scrambled over to his brother talking in desperate Italian, he kept smacking his cheek. Alfred was sure that he could see tears in the older brothers eyes. Alfred would have rushed over to help right away, but he couldn't help but to cringe. He hoped his own brother was alright. It would be heart breaking if anything had happened to him. He began to walk toward the two brothers when he heart something.  
Maybe it was nothing but someone stepping on a twig, a creature, a mammal. But something wasn't quite right as of the moment. He took in a dee breath." Lovino….try to calm him down…I don't think we're alone…" Lovino shot up a glare at him," Stupido! Who else the fuck would—? Oh stop that! What are you a baby?!" Lovino yelled as Alfie put a finger to his lips. It was as if he was saying for him to be quiet.  
Lovino slowly began to comply, begrudgingly to Alfred’s request. Reducing to just singing softly in Italian to his little brother. Alfred began to silently walk through the forest. He didn’t want to make much noise, he wasn't sure if they were being watched, or stalked. He walked so far from the Italians that he couldn't hear Feliciano's coughing any longer. He then feeling lost walked around. It didn’t take him a long time to hear something.  
Drip. Drip. Drip.  
He carefully, with his fists drawn and ready walked to the source of the noise. It took him a while to find this noise. But when he did. He wished he hadn't  
His hands went to his mouth to catch the gasp.  
No.  
His fingers trembled and he was stunned for a moment before he began to walk toward the horror scene that he currently saw. His eyes were wide and beginning to fill with tears. He wanted to just die right here.  
He saw his brother. Matthew, dangling from a rope, by his neck. His final face was twisted in a terrible pain. Like he had been screaming or coughing. There was some sticky blood on his chin. It dripped down to his chest. HIs head was twisted in a terrible angle. His eyes were bloodshot and they had lost all of the life from them. His pale-ish hair was covered in sweat and blood, it stuck to his pale forehead. HIs body dangled lifeless, the most disgusting face that could only be described as looking like a dead fish. He had fought. Alfred could tell that. He inhaled sharply and then felt his body shake. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be happening. This wasn't his life. It wasn't.  
Drip. Drip. Drip.  
Alfred couldn't breathe. His lips parted and he let out the most gentle scream. It sounded more like it belonged in a horror film. It was raw and full of panic. He fell to his knees and hit his fists in the ground.  
His brother was dead.  
Just that moment there was a sound in the brush. Something moving fast.  
He wasn't alone…


	5. Chapter 5

_June 26th 1774_

_Dearest Amelia,_

_Amelia my dove, I have not heard from you in the longest while. I have sent a letter every month since the event of those people throwing the tea away into the harbour. How wasteful! I just wanted to check in on you… You and your brother haven't responded to my or Arthurs letters._

_It is starting to worry me so, I understand if you are getting busy, being a colony and all must be tedious on your part, trying to make the disrespectful rebels understand that their duty and your duty to the lovely mother country of Britain._

_I dont want you to go astray Amelia. I care for you greatly, I hope you understand that. If this breaks out into war then so be it, but do not concern yourself with the details. Just know that your place is to the king. Your only purpose is to serve the king, that is my only purpose, Arthur's, and Alfred's._

_We all serve him for a reason. Just keep that in mind. I know that your are a wild spirit, but there is no reasonable excuse to commit treason._

_With the kindest regards._

_Alice Kirkland._

Amelia walked down the corridor of her home. It was dark, raining, nighttime. It was hard to see so she held a candle that flickered with the breeze. She could hear him, in his room, crying. Now she would have opened the door, but the last time that she tried when he was upset. He threw a plant at her. Yes, a plant. It hit her flat in the stomach and hurt like hell.

She sighed when she stopped at the door. It was pitiful, he was the one to make the decision of breaking off. He was the one whom had longed for freedom. She would have spoken up too, but for that she would have been beaten, thrown to the side like a piece of paper. It was as if she mattered as much as the dirt under the feet of the men.

It was irritating, to say in the least. But it was something that she would have to deal with her entire life. She sighed and listened to the sobs coming from the room. She sighed and then put her back against the door before sighing softly,"Alfred… I know this hurts, but you have to remember—" She was cut off by a loud sound above her head.

Her eyes widened and she took a deep breath as she heard his voice,"Fuck off you stupid bitch! Just go back to the fucking kitchen. I have a battle to win tonight…" Amelia was surprised, well not that much so, he wasn't like this usually, so she did her best to excuse it. It wasn't his fault, he was scared, people said angry things when they were scared.

She sighed and stood up. "I'll leave your dinner by the door Alfie, don't forget to eat up, you need energy to battle…" She had a certain smile in her voice that was hard to deny,"A-Alright… Thank you…" She heard a soft inhale with the words then a soft thump of him plopping down on the bed.

She was worried for him, this wasn't like him at all, he was usually a bright and jolly chap, with endless energy and excitement. Maybe he would return to that after the war was over. It was looking pretty good on their side, Francis had come with his enforcements a short while ago and it was looking to be a win for them. She hoped.

She sighed and walked into the kitchen to see there was already someone in there. At this time of night?! She just about dropped her candle when she saw a woman and a man sitting next to each other. Their backs were turned and they were uttering something in a language she didn't understand. She froze and then slowly began to back up. Her long hair fell infront of her eyes and whilst desperately trying to bat the bloody bangs out of her eyes she made a soft creaking noise with her boots on the hard wood floor.

The man suddenly turned. He had welcoming features, a confused look on his face for a moment but then he smiled," Ah, _Salut!_ " Now Arthur and Alice hadn't taught her much french but she thought that might, possibly be a greeting.

Sheepishly she gave a wave, with a tight nervous smile.

"Françias! She is one of the _ameriques_ , she speak no french." The woman said. She was still turned so she couldn't drink in the features of the woman. But the man she could.

He had light blond hair, which was pulled back into a soft pony tail. It looked as if it would be gentle to the touch, but of course she didn't go up and feel his hair, that would have been strange. His nose was a bit long but it fit his face perfectly. Honestly he looked like the most well sculpted man she had seen in a long while. Be had high cheek bones that lit up his face in his smile.

His eyes were a lovely mix between lavender and light boy blue. They held the smile too. It was hard not to stare at this man. He looked like something that would have been carved out of the heavens. He had lovely lips. They were on the plumpish side like Amelia's.

" _Bonjour?_ Miss Amelia! Do you not remember me?" He asked in his thickly French accent. He reached out a hand to shake hers. She took it cautiously," Apologies, I do not. May you refresh me on who you are?"

The woman who had been sitting down and not facing them looked over her shoulder. "You are skinnier than I thought you would be…Probably what that stupid English woman doing." She said before she got up out of her chair and set her mug down.

Amelia wasn't sure how to respond to that she had just said. She had half the mind to defend the englishwoman but then she remembered that they were at war. She decided to take it as a complement and observe this older woman.

She looked around twenty. Somewhere in there, maybe she was in her mid- twenties. Amelia drank in her feminine features that were agreeing with her male friend's. She had more of a button nose compared to her male counterparts longer nose. She had curves all over her body, not in a negative way, but in one that gave her a a nice set of hips and a largish chest. It was a bit larger than Amelia's.

Amelia sighed and bowed her head to the woman shaking her hand gingerly as the man seemed to explain their presence. " I suppose it is reasonable you not remember us… Last time we met, you were but a child."

" We together are the country of France. I call myself Francis, and she Francine." Amelia blinked and then took a deep breath. She then made a soft sound before inhaling sharply and bowed once to them. She tried her best not to show too much intimidation but it was a bit hard you see.

She then looked at them and took a deep breath. " We are very, very grateful for your help." She said politely. "Oh no need for the formalities! We are family, non?" The word family used seemed to dampen her but she did her best not to let it show.

"You must have been sleeping when we got in from Paris." The feminine voice said as Francis wrapped an arm around her shoulders," Haha… So this is your first war against the bushy brows? Well I can say they put up fight, persistance in them, but they are able to defeat. We have navy on the coast!" He then kissed her cheek in a friendly manner.

Amelia made a small squeaking sound and jerked away. "Why would you do that?!" She cried blushing terribly and wiping at her cheek. The two French people burst into laughter," Haha do you fear the kiss little one?" "No! I've just never been allowed to!" She said.

Francis howling laughter had turned into a soft and gentle one. " Never allowed to kiss? What are the British teaching their offspring these days!? Kiss is natural!" The Frenchman said softly all the while Francine wrapped her arms around the younger girls waist.

"Have you ever done the kiss before?" She asked softly.

Amelia felt the strong urge to lie. Sure she had, but when she was very young. She was but a child the last time she had received or given one of these things.

So she lied, she didn't want want to admit her first kiss was to her now enemy. She didn't want to admit it," No, I haven't." She said before they laughed.

"Alright we show you okay! It not big deal!" Francis said smiling. "Okay Francine, You are first! Show her the best you have!" The French woman's lips curled into a smile and before Amelia could protest she was pulled into a kiss. She blinked a few times before she pulled away. "You have to work with me!" She said before doing it again.

She felt greatly uncomfortable. It was frightening, she was blushing up a storm. Francis chuckled,"My turn!" He said before grabbing Amelia's hand and snatching her away from the other. He then dipped her making her give a small squeak as he slowly and carefully slammed his lips into hers. It was the same as Francine's, loving and soft, with the smallest touch of passion in it.

It made Amelia's cheeks burn in a red fashion as she took in a deep breath. What was happening? Why was she allowing this to happen? She felt her sprits lifted as the Frenchman pulled back. Francine giggled and looked at her male counterpart.

"Okay! I go again—." Francine was interrupted by a harsh clearing of the throat. "Bonjour Alfred—" Alfred only looked at his female counterpart with cold eyes. "Yeah… Whatever shouldn't you be up at the coast…" Alfred grumbled looking embarrassed. He didn't once look at Amelia and that made her feel sad, but hey, he had told her to get into the kitchen, and look what she found.

Francine wrapped her arms around Amelia's torso and pressed herself against the other female. "Oui, I see you are the jealous! What an innocent girl you keep Alfie! She had never kissed—" "—And you didn't need to teach her!" Alfred snapped.

Now Amelia looked at the boy, " Now listen to me Alfred F. Jones! I can do what ever the hell I want! I am not you!" She yelled as the boy walked past her to the counter top to start munching on some bread, he didn't look as if he cared in the slightest.

"Sure you're not. I would have fed my brother, not started locking lips with our allies. I shouldn't even pay them back, I'll just sell them to you like a prostitute. They can have their dues with you and then our new nation will be debt free." He said nonchalantly.

Francis looked as if his eyebrows raised, " Now Alfred that is no way to talk to _une femme—_." " Yes it is! He just thinks that all women belong in the house! You stupid bastard! You are just like Arthur—."

"You take that back!"

"No! I won't hold my tongue anymore! I won't be inferior to you and your goddamn testosterone!" She screamed detangling herself from the Frenchwoman. "You are just like him! All you care for is power and greed!" She yelled again. Her voice was raw from the yelling, " I am done with you!"

She then turned and walked out of the kitchen stomping so hard up the stairs a few of the steps made a cracking sound. She was much stronger than she let on. But honestly she was tired of Alfred, her own discriminatory brother.

Once reaching her room she collapsed within it. Slamming the door angrily and then sniffling softly to herself.

That was when she came up with the plan.

It was late when she woke again. Some sort of internal alarm woke her, and it was good that it had, if not her plan was indeed doomed to failure. She took in a deep breath and sighed softly before walking oh so carefully to her bedroom door.

Without any source of light she felt around for the door knob. She slowly and carefully made her way out the door. It was so hard to tread lightly upon the floor boards, she knew what she had to do to prove herself. She inhaled before somehow in the pale moonlight, made her way down to Alfred's room.

She slowly and carefully opened the door, trying her best not to make a sound. She didn't want wake him. He looked so childish in his sleep. Like a little boy, it was cute. But she hadn't time to stay around looking at him. She needed his clothes.

She slowly meandered around his room before seeing where she had neatly folded his uniform. She slowly and carefully removed the clothing from the trunk it lay on. She then walking over to Alfred, she looked at him once more. Then kindly and carefully she bent down and laid a kiss on his cheek.

When he stirred she jumped. She watched him smile softly in his sleep and sniffled softly feeling herself get teary eyed. But she couldn't allow herself to cry. She couldn't get upset, or the world would se her as a coward. She couldn't have that could she. It would be a terrible world for a coward wouldn't it?

She then took a deep breath and then slowly shut the door. She looked at the door for a moment before pulling a narrow key out of her pocket. Then sure to lock his door, not like it would prevent him temporarily from finding her before she left.

She needed to do this, it would save them all. She slowly pulled a letter out of her nightgown and set it in front of the door. Then inhaling she walked back to her room.

In a haste she stripped herself of the clothing that she wore. And she covered up every feminine feature that lined her body. Her chest had been wrapped and her hips were covered in the baggy masculine pants.

Lastly after she was clothed, she slowly but surely cut off her hair. It had been a blond mass that had fallen down to her back. Now it was cut to her brothers length. She inhaled looking in the mirror and finding one thing that completed her outfit. A small piece of ribbon she used to tie in her hair. Sure it was a mans world, but she didn't want to feel entirely out of place.

By the time the daylight broke out. She was gone ridding away on Alfred's horse to victory. She was planning on winning this war and showing Alfred that she, could indeed be as strong as he.

It was raining by the time the battle had fallen down to the ends of it. Amelia had to shield her eyes from the rain to see her enemy. There were few men left on the side of the British, but she had seemed to fool most of the troops, they all thought that she was their leader. That was appealing.

She was panting by the end of it all. She wanted out of her own filthy skin. In the deepest voice she could muster she held her musket, "It's over Arthur!" She called through the mist, she knew he wouldn't be able to stand the chance to come and try one last time to subdue them.

She knew that he really just wanted to keep Alfred. No one wanted a girl in this world but to be their slave.

She felt her heart beat quickly and she was panting with a painful adrenaline. She felt weak and pale but that was from fighting.

"Damnit! Why can't you follow anything through to the end!" he called

She parted her chapped lips and stared through the mist that cloaked her, " I'm not your little brother!" She called. There was truth to that. She felt as if she was honestly nothing to him.

"Consider me Independent!"

"No I wont allow it!" She heard. She then saw the mist disturbed. He was running at her, by the time she found that out he was so close she hadn't time to block out his hit, but contrary to what she expected, he only knocked her weapon from her. But that motion caused a terrible pain to wrack her side.

She grit her teeth as he pointed the gun straight at her forehead.

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

That was the sound that she heard as she clutched her side that pained her. It must have been from fighting honestly because if Arthur had done anything she would have caught it. These guns were quite hard to silence. But it hurt. Maybe he would make it quick for her. Maybe he wanted her death to be painless. A bullet straight to the head. She could have died in a worse manner.

She wasn't sure if he identified her as Amelia yet, but it was over. Her eyes closed, she didn't want to see it coming. One last surprise.

" There's no way I can shoot you." She then heard a sound of dropping meat before she opened her eyes. It was Arthur on the floor sobbing. " What happened…you used to be so big…" She whispered softly in a voice that was deeper than her own. Then she felt herself grimace in pain as she dug her fingers into the bleeding wound on her side. Her men were cheering, they were joyous. They had all just won, and she had led them to victory…

Was that so?

A humble woman such as she?

A small smile worked its way up to her lips. She had won hadn't she?

As she watched her former caretaker fall to his knees and sob. She felt airy and gay. It all felt like a dream. Maybe that was so…

Clutching her side she somehow got back up on her horse, or well Alfred's horse. "Now get out of my country. You're not welcome here." She said through clenched teeth. It hurt so… She needed to get help. If she could get home Alfred would know what to do.

She then with one more glance at Arthur began to run out of the field. It hurt. She left the rest up to her, well Alfred's generals. They would finish off all of the signing. She inhaled sharply a trampled off.

The horse seemed to sense her urgency and made its long march back to her home. She could hardly see by the time that they got there, it was good indeed this was a military horse, or she might not have actually got home. The rain thundered down on her back and she was hardly breathing.

Just as the house came in sight. She heard a door slamming, it was still the early hours of the morning. She heard a lot of commotion. She then heard her name a few times.

But in trying to look over she inhaled sharply and her entire body fell off of the horse. She heard it whinny and gallop away from her. But she didn't hit the hard ground, she hit something softer, stronger than the muddy ground.

It wasn't long before she slowly drifted into the black.

***********

 

" ** _All cruelty springs from weakness."_**

― **_Seneca_** ** _, Seneca's Morals: Of a Happy Life, Benefits, Anger and Clemency_**

Lovino heard some sort of inhuman scream and looked at his brother. Feliciano was one the floor coughing his lungs out, he was calmer than he had been before, but he was still coughing terribly. It scared the smallish Italian. Lovino sighed and rubbed his brothers chest softly, "It is alright fratello.. The stupid American will protect us until you feel better… You will feel better soon.. It wont last long…" He mumbled.

He was sure that he was given a shaky smile from his coughing and wheezing brother. "The gas won't last long… We are the republic of Italia…" He said getting a slight nod from Feliciano. He sighed and then rubbed his chest. He didn't know if he was helping or if he was making it worse for the smaller Italian.

Honestly he had no idea of what to do. He didn't know how to help or how to heal, he wasn't the talented one of the two. Feli was, Lovino sighed and let the tears finally build up in his eyes. He felt like crying, he was trying so hard to make his little brother feel better but the probably wouldn't for a day or two. Countries couldn't die like this. He knew that for a fact.

But it was still nerve wracking. Watching someone who had stood by you for hundreds of years. Whom you had fought with so terribly for a certain amount of years only to make up and be brothers again. It was hard to watch him cough up lung fluid, and lay there, helpless to everything.

Lovino suddenly heard the sound of the wind whistling behind him. It was loud, very loud, as if something was moving so fast it was deadly to get in its way. Lovino then stumbled up to try an figure out what this threat was. He had to protect his brother. He had to, he wanted to, he then took in a deep breath and searched the forest floor for something that he could defend himself with.

He found a large branch and settled that would be okay to swing at someone. He then inhaled deeply before closing his eyes and biting his lip. What was coming? He didn't want to look, he feared that it would hurt him and his brother. That scared him. But he had to look! He had to be brave and protect his brother like all big brothers should.

Upon opening his eyes he inhaled deeply And then got ready to dash out and hit the other person. He saw someone in a mask running through the forest. Some sort of gas mask he saw and this person was running through the forest quickly.

Lovino crouched above his brother with the stick ready to attack. He wasn't going to let anyone hurt Felicano. He took in a deep breath and when the person got close enough, he screamed and then he charged.

In the small clearing of the forest, Lovino was indeed beating the shit out of someone with a gas mask. They had tried to talk before he started to viciously beat them with his tree branch. "Don't. Touch. Brother!" He yelled.

"Stop! Stop! Lovi—! Hurts—!"

Wait he recognized that voice. "Bastard?!" He asked before drawing the stick back just incase he was wrong.

"Si! Si! Stop!" He heard. The Spaniard's long tan arms were tangled over his head. Like he was attempting to block the hits. Now that Lovino could see the chocolate brown curls pouring from the straps behind the mask.

He felt himself starting to turn red. "What the fuck are you doing! Coming to scare me when my brothers down?!" He said looking rather upset. He took in a deep breath and dropped his stick, he felt better that Antonio was here. He sighed and then took a deep breath as the gas mask fell to the ground.

"We saw you run into the forest with the Americano…Then the few of us that had gotten to the masks in time… We couldn't see the rest… a few are staying behind to tally—." Lovino then slowly began to sniffle. He bent back down to his brother, whom was breathing a bit better by now. He was still coughing and there was blood dribbling down his chin. He his eyes were closed but he was still roughly breathing and coughing every few minutes.

Lovino sniffled once more and then a tear slipt down his cheek. He balled up his shirt sleeve and slowly and carefully wiped his brothers chin. Feliciano slowly grabbed his wrist and seemed to try and say something but Lovino shook his head and silenced him.

"Lovino… did…Feli… get the gas?…" Antonio washed softly seeming to walk around to the other side of the small Italian. " Sí… He ran out to me gasping and… I tried to get him out fast…Then the stupid Americano ran off…I haven't heard from him….In a while…" He whispered in little bits as he stroked his brothers cheeks.

That was when a sound was heard. It was somewhat like a scream, more like a howl. Lovino's eyes widened. What could have made that sound? A dog? A wolf? Was someone trying to hurt an animal?

Antonio stood and his face was certainly business. "Lovino. Quedas aqui. I will be right back… I am going to go and try to see what is going on. Protect your brother. Make sure that nothing happens to the two of you while I am gone… I will be back as soon as I can." And with that he stood and began to walk away.

Off into the forest where the terrible scream had come from.

And Lovino was a sobbing mess.

This couldn't be happening. Not now. It couldn't be happening, he had yelled at his brother the last time he had seen him. He couldn't be dead. Countries couldn't die. They couldn't, they were too important. They were much to important to die. They were too important.

_I should have been better to him…_

His mind whispered.

_I shouldn't have been so loud. I should have been better. Give him back. Please! Give him back! I promise I'll be better! I'll be better! I'll do anything!_

Now slowly very, slowly a tear began to drip down his cheek. His face was a mask of cold pain. He was bent over, his pain was apparent but he couldn't cry much. HIs mind had been trained not to cry. It was hard right now, there was a dam in his mind that was ready to explode.

He knew that if he cried that he wouldn't be able to stop. So he didn't cry. He looked angered, mad almost as he stood up. His shoulders drooped softly and he walked over to his noosed brother, slowly and untying the noose he pulled his brother down and laid him on the ground.

He then took a deep breath and stroked his brothers face. He tried to find a pulse, but it was useless. He was gone. He couldn't do anything to help him… He couldn't hold his hand and tell him it would be alright. Matthews soul was gone, his body was a mere messy shell of what it had been…

Alfred then bowed his head in a moment of silence. Making a soft prayer in his mind for matthew. He then heard noise behind him. He didn't move. He didn't do anything besides burry his face in his brothers chest as a way of saying goodbye. He held him on his lap doing his best not to cry.

"It didn't have to be this way…." A voice whispered. " But you chose this Alfred…. You all chose this….I have two trophies now…" The voice whispered in his ears. He couldn't get up he just breathed in his brothers sent. He always smelled the same, like fresh cut grass. It made him always so happy to hug his brother. Because he had the same sent every time.

"You should join me Alfie…Instead of fighting me…. If you don't I'll have to kill one of my trophies… We could live like royalty Alfred!"

Her voice was sweet but sharp like acid. It burned Alfred's ears. He turned to try and respond to this feminine voice with a thick poison of his own. But he couldn't see any person belonging to the voice. His eyes were red but tears had not migrated their way out of his eyes. They stayed deep in his eyes.

He then heard someone running through the brush and froze up. He felt his muscles tense up in a way that made a ripple send its way through his whole body. He then pulled his fists up and then got ready to defend himself against this voice. He then took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Show your fucking self coward! It had to be this way! It did because you made it this way!"

"América! Wait—."

No, he wasn't going to wait any longer. He dashed forward to the source of the sound and tackled him or her, what ever was making the sound he wanted it dead.

"Again?! Get off—." The voice screamed. But America wouldn't stop. He couldn't, he just brough his fist down over and over and over again until he heard bones crack. Maybe in the collarbone. Maybe in the face. But he was trying only to protect himself, to protect his brothers corpse.

it wasn't long before something wet and sticky splash him in the face as he was thrown from the surprise victim.

His head hit something and it was all fuzzy. He blinked a bit and looked about. Suddenly he felt some sort of presence pushing him into the dirt. Fists hit him in the chest and in the face. He made a soft sound and gave up. Maybe it was where he deserved.

He was dying beside his brothers corpse.

Suddenly the presence was gone and someone was tapping his aching cheek. A soft tear of blood migrated its way down his face from his cheek. "Alfred! Alfred!" the accent was hard to tell at the time. It was like something just shut off.

All of his bones weighed far too much for his mind. It was hard to lift his aching arms. He felt like he was going to pass out. But he forced himself up pushing away the person towering over him. He then felt himself yanked up by an angry hand.

"What the fuck—?" The voice started but woozy Alfred felt himself sway. "I…I panicked…Who's there?" He asked. His glasses had fallen off in the struggle. Hs eyes were frankly useless against the blur of the world.

"Its just Spain and Prussia… Kesese~" Alfred seemed to relax a little as he leaned on the new person, possibly Gilbert, honestly he was aching inside. He could hardly function, there were random Spanish curses floating about the air, but it made no sense to his foggy mind. There was a sympathetic stroking of his back, muttering something in sweet language to him.

He then slumped gently as he hear some sort of gasp. Maybe they had found his brothers body, maybe they were trying not to die.

Nothing made sense in this semi-concious state. He just leaned on whom ever was given the displeasure of standing near him. He felt so sick, in the heart and the mind.

When Francis awoke from his insane dream. He wasn't sure where he was. He wasn't sure at all what was happening. He didn't remember much of what happened after he hit the floor when the gas came around. But it was almost like he was all better now. He moved his arms a little to try and figure out what was going on. Or at least where he was.

He heard some sort of soft clinking noise when he moved. Upon fully opening his sore eyes he looked down to find some sort of thing attached to his wrist, scratch that both of his wrists. He moved them but they made more noise.

Hell, where was he now?

He looked about the room it was white. Eerie as could be.

In fact it was totally and entirely white. The walls were white. The floor was a white sort of linoleum. He felt a terrible ache in the chest and in his throat as he moved. He seemed to be chained to the wall. He was sitting on his bottom on the floor.

It was an interesting feeling this one. It was half of him wanted to laugh at how bizarre this was. The other half was angry, he wanted to get out of these awkward chains that bound him down. He shift in the chains that bound him to the floor. It was painful every time that he moved. They seemed to dig so tightly into his wrists it was almost numbing.

There was a knock at the door and a familiarly smug laugh.

He froze, _that is unreasonable, it can't be—._

Suddenly the door swung open, it was a beautifully terrifying moment of silence.

Then, Arthur stepped in the room.

His eyes looked strange to Francis.

They weren't that of a human, where they had been green there was black. It was as if the pupil had bled out of his eye, and completely taken over the retina and the iris. It was strange, like he was half dead. His skin was unnaturally pale and there was a smile sewed into his dry and cracked lips.

His crooked teeth shown through his smile. That was one thing that Francis had always thought was cute about him, he wasn't entirely perfect and that made him achievable for the Frenchman.

Artie walked through the door looking around with his demonic eyes. He then took a deep breath and his smile fell. He looked the Frenchman up and down, he stared at Francis for a moment and his mouth looked as if it was going to open, like he was going to say something, but then it closed, as if he had forgotten how to speak.

He bent down and then touched Francis face carefully," Angleterre… What has happened to you…?" He asked in a soft hushed voice. He got no reply, there was a certain pain in the shaping of his eyes, his body didn't do anything besides pet Francis cheek as a a person would a cat.

"England! You look terrifying. Tell me what happened! Look at me! Do you see me?!" He said in a rising voice with an upset tone, his eyes were about to water at the statue infront of him, but he stopped them from doing so. He couldn't cry, he was hundreds of years old, he couldn't, he wouldn't.

He closed his eyes and bit his tongue, he didn't fancy saying anything else to the mindless Brit. Arthur's hand moved up and down his cheek. Then the hand was suddenly gone as the door made a sound opening again.

"France! I missed you!" The voice spoke as soon he could see it belonged to a young girl. She looked younger than twenty, but vaguely familiar. He squinted his eyes and opened his mouth almost ready to ask her who she was, but he then saw something strange.

She snapped her fingers and Arthur totally backed off. He stood straight as his black eyes just stared down at Francis. "You are dismissed. Off with you, go check the monitors." She said simply as her pale cheeks held the smallest smiling blush on them.

Something about her composure showed that she was somewhat pleased with finding him or captruing him either would have made sense at the moment, it was rather confusing.

She of course politely bent down and kissed each of his cheeks. " Who are you?! What do you want with me?!"

She suddenly looked forlorn, almost as if she had been expecting something that hadn't come. He sighed and though he was in a sticky situation he lowered his voice," What is your name cheri? Why am I here?" He asked.

"Well… You're mine now… I missed you alt so i had you come to live with me for now… Now you don't have to be like Artie over here… He fought back when I came to get him… You're not going to fight me Fran… Are you?" She asked like a small child. Something was vaguely familiar about her.

She was much like a child, with that large smile. It was hard to want two say no to her. There was something glowing in her blueish eyes. It made him want to agree with her. But he looked away and it seemed to break the spell. "I don't want to but I will if i need to… I don't remember you…should I? You cannot make me work with you.."

" But I can! You see Arthur. He just went off to rest, but he has no free will… Now I have the power to keep him that way… Forever maybe… if I die before I release him… he'll be a potato.." She said giggling softly as she slowly began to unlock his hand cuffs.

Francis was looking down at his lap and that was it. His eyes were tired and he looked up. "What if i chose not to believe you?"

She smiled softly her childish features lighting up greatly as she yawned. " I was waiting for you to ask that… Arthur! Come here!' She yelled then taking a deep breath and smiling, " Watch this it is really cool!" She said excited.

Francis began to stretch his wrists about as she unlocked his foot restraints and smiled once Arthur stepped into the room. " You called Miss Amelia?"

"Look at me." She said.

Now, it was silent for a few moments. Then Arthur gasped in air and fell to his feet making a short scream tear from his lips. His eyes glazed over in their demonic look with a terrible pain as he coughed and gasped.

"Angleterre! Non! Stop it!"

He said getting up and beginning to run to him. "Don't… It'll only hurt him more…" She said. "Now I'm not entirely cruel… I will give you until dawn to decide… Don't waste your time… I'll leave him here…"

Arthurs moans of pain had been silenced all of a sudden once she began to walk out of the room. "Shhh Mon cher… It is all okay now… It will not hurt… Not for much longer…" Francis whispered once he had gotten to the whining Brit.

"I am here and I am going to kiss it all better…" He said in a wavering voice to the mindless person whom he had pulled into his arms.

Stroking Arthurs hair, it wasn't long before there were soft sounds of sleep from the Brit. It was then that Francis made his decision.

He was to fight along side of the Englishman for once.


	6. Chapter 6

_July 4, 1812_

_Dear Amelia,_

_I heard that some of our men are making trouble for you and your brother. That is a terrible shame! I mean we would surely ask them to stop their strange impressions of your ships and men, but the matter seem to be out of my hands! Oh dear, How I wish I could help?_

_-Alice Kirkland_

It seemed to always be cold and dark on days of war. Like the sun had disappeared from the sky, the rain seemed to work its way down from the heavens and splatter itself on the earth, in such a way blood leaked from a swollen and bloated wound.

It had seemed unavoidable, war, but it was always necessary to man. To fight, to hate, it was just natural of man…

Amelia walked down the stone path with her dress swishing uncomfortably around her thighs. It was too loose around her body and just felt to be uncomfortable. It was bothersome that she had to wear this to the sending off of the supplies to Britian.

Somehow she still held a grudge over the War of 1812. It was a bit childish how the British had decided to be spoiled about losing the war after years, and years of separation.

When business came, she was forced to make up with her former caretakers. She held a bullets scar in her mid torso from where she had gotten shot, well of course that was back in the day. It had turned from an angry mark of red, to a scarlet scar, to a pink scar. It was rather impressive how fast it had healed.

She slowly rubbed the mark on her stomach through her clothes as if remembering not to be too jolly once she got there. Her smile had been shielded and her feelings had been locked up. She carried a simple suitcase with her clothes in it.

Her job, of course was to oversee that the ship would anchor safely in the harbor of London. She sighed and then blinked softly and sadly, she didn't really want to go and give Arthur and Alice the satisfaction of knowing that she was now, not an ally, but not an enemy to their nation. Sure they had worked together through many events and started trading.

But they were bigger strangers than ever.

Honestly the only reason she could think to go would be to assist the other Allies of Great Britain. She was personally worried for France, they always seemed to be a big battle front, everyone was taking sides, it was a mess.

The most insulting thing was the Germans had asked the southern neighbors to her, the Mexicans, (she was still really sore about the Alamo.) if they would help the Germans double gang America. Now excuse her, she didn't want any part of that.

This was of course why they were sending her along with the supplies for the armies in the war they were not technically in, yet.

It was a miserable day out. She needed an umbrella just to make it down the street to where the cab was to pick her up, another reason she hated the dress she was forced into, it was cold on her legs.

The rain poured down around her as she inhaled grumpily, this was certainly not a good sign, it was completely miserable out. She sighed as she held her umbrella above her head trying to make sure that none of the water had gotten on her hair. She hated to get her hair wet walking about, it always caused some sort of messy mishap with the blond mop.

She stared across the murky street and sighed softly, the wet pavement shone softly under the soft moonlight, like there were gentle stars illuminating the ground and teasing the reality that hit Amelia like a smoking train.

She sighed pulling a cigarette out of her pocket and balancing her umbrella on her arm, slowly she attempted to light a match, it took a while but she finally got it lit, she put the cigarette in her mouth

She then slowly brought the match to the cigarettes end and watched it smoke gently. She sighed and shook her head, life was a mess, it was then she saw the cab cruising down the street. White smoke bellowed from the end tail pipe, a yawn tore itself from her lips and she sighed every so softly.

It wasn't long before smoke and all Amelia was in the cab, one of the windows was rolled down so she could blow her smoke outward, instead of making all of the windows misty with the heat. "Good Morning miss! Where will I be taking you this fine, early mornin'." he spoke softly but with glee.

Looking into the driver seat she saw an elderly man, not too old but old enough to be noticed. He had black hair with what seemed like salt and pepper shook into it. She smiled at him and put the cigarette between her first two fingers," Take me to the boatyard." She said smiling softly, then adding details on where the yard was.

The ride wasn't silent to say in the least, this elderly-ish man, Paul, kept her talking. He was very lively for someone of his age, maybe fifty. He asked her many things and provided conversation and laughter for the most part.

"So why are you heading off to the shipyard young one?" He asked in his slow and intelligent tone. His eyes were soft and patient in the rear view mirror. "I have a job to do." " A woman? Doin' work? My God and Savior we don't have many of 'em!" He said with a chuckle. "Who do you work for?" "The government I would suppose." She said glumly, "My, uh, brother, he is a very high official and is shipping me off to do some of the filth work. I have to meet up with some, uh," she stammered for a moment, "Well, go on child!" He said still smiling. "Lets just say I have to meet up with some aristocratic British officials that have left me with a bad taste in my mouth before." She said her childish figures bringing forth a frown to her full lips.

"Oh you're meeting with some bad company? Well, you don't have to be nice to 'em, do ya?" He asked slowly,"No… I don't expect them to accept me with open arms either, we don't get along very well… We used to…" She felt her strong voice trail off into a weak whisper.

"Well darlin' it sounds like you're in a bit of a pickle, I can send up a prayer for you darlin' but that's just about all i can do." He said gently. " What's the name of your ship hun?" He asked gently offering a smile.

" _Housatonic_ it sails out at about oh-four-hundred sir." She said giving him a smile back, they seemed to be approaching the docks and sure as the sun there was a large boat in the distance,"Thank you for your kindness sir. I must be leaving." He gave a soft smile and a solid nod before she paid him and she stepped out of the car.

As she drew her umbrella she heard the words,"Good luck." uttered before the door was slammed and shut. Quickly he drove off, Amelia watched the cars taillights in the darkness as he turned. She watched the men starting to walk toward the ship. Her heels made soft clicking sounds against the pavement.

It wasn't long before she began to board the boat with all of the weapons and supplies.

Around two-and-a-half hours later Amelia stood before around two hundred men. They all wore work clothes, this was the debriefing. She shuffled uncomfortably scowling in her dress and all. She looked quite unhappy and irritated some of the men were whispering and chuckling, looking at her, like she was a piece of meat.

It was sickening, and it made her the slightest bit angry. It showed, they thought this was a job for a man, oh how excited she was to prove them wrong. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath.

"Attention!'

No one seemed to listen to her for a short while. She sighed and looked about for a way to get attention of them. There were a few glass bottles laying about, empty ones, and that gave her an idea.

She walked over as the men chattered amongst themselves. Slowly she picked up a bottle and sighed inspecting it, now she was physically almost as strong as Alfred was, of course he was build to be slightly stronger than she. She held the bottle in her hand and walked back to the center and held up the bottle.

This was a way to make an entrance.

She then squeezed the muscles together in her hand pressing the bottle together,together, together, then there was a loud _pop._

The glass shattered apart in her hands, sure it cut it up quite a bit but it got the attention of the men. She inhaled and smiled, "Thank you! For your attention," She said with an irritated tone, "Now for the debriefing.." She said in a loud voice. She went in to all of the information about where they were going and why they were going, she talked on and on about how it was dangerous to enter a country's oceanic area during the time of war, and how if anything were to go off or seem off they should say so immediately.

She sighed and then pulled shards of glass from her palm as she finished up. Some of the men had paled at this, she must seem like some she beast, so casually pulling glass shards from her hand. It didnt quite hurt the same as it would for a human, it was just a sting, she would most certainly heal by morning. She inhaled and then waved her bleeding hand,"Dismissed." She said grumpily.

Some of the weaker minded people ran from the room and that made her chuckle. The rest just walked not looking back at her. She sighed and the watched blood drip down her hand. "Oh dear this is going to be a nuisance." She might as well head up to her room and get it bandaged up.

It was a bit later, maybe at night after they had set off to bring supplies to the Allied powers. There was a clear night, the stars were abundant in the sky. Amelia had decided to take a small walk out on the deck. Sitting in her room writing letters was more boring then not. She needed something to do. She had stolen some work clothes from the workmen's closet and such. They were set to be there sooner or later, when she had started to talk to the captain, he was too boring and such so she didn't pay much attention and had focused on picking the dry skin off her nails.

She sighed and looked down at the waves parted by the large boat. It was quite boring, honestly she was just waiting to go to somewhere she hadn't really every been. She had only been to Britain when they were allies. Her eyes shone softly in the moonlight as she held onto a letter.

It was from Arthur, not Alice, she hadn't talked to Alice since the War of 1812. It was strange how someone could keep a grudge that long. Well, Arthur hadn't entirely gotten over this either. He was so terribly polite to her it was painful, it was more like they were strangers.

He still didn't know that she was the one on the battle field that day. It was rather guilt weighing to know that he was offering her a slight forgiveness, for something that she did, only because she though that her brother had done so.

It was crazy how the Canadians had asked for their freedom. There were no battle scars on Maddie or Matthew's skin. Not from a battle such as that, it was hard to be jealous of them though. They were a gentle country.

She looked down and the letter and read through the words once more;

_December 12, 1917_

_Dear Amelia,_

_I thank you for the reply to my message. We are in some desperate need of aid. We are planning to win this war. It will be lovely to see you again! It has been so long since I have seen you, overtime that you are to come you seem to fall some sort of ill. Are you easy to sicken? Or is it the journey that makes you ill? Either way when you come to us we will have a perfectly war proof bunker for your stay. Along with other necessities that you will of course need._

_It will honestly be great to see you. I would propose that Alice feels similar._

_I understand that we have had our differences in the past, but we should put that aside for your short trip with us._

_With gratitude,_

_Arthur Kirkland_

She tucked the letter in one of her oversized pockets. Then she sighed and looked up at the sky. The stars were so pretty, she looked down at the sea and saw the stars reflected in the ocean. One was especially bright.

She furrowed her thin brows and then looked up at the sky. Surprisingly there was no star in the sky there. That was certainly strange, a feeling of unease fell over her as she took in a deep breath and slowly backed away from the side of the ship. Something flew up right next to the ship. It had come out of the water and was terribly bright. There was a loud explosive noise and it threw her back and made her fall on her back.

Her ears we're ringing. It hurt, everything hurt. She couldn't tell from all of the smoke if the boat had been hit or if to had just been missed. She tried to force herself up on her hands and knees and her back hardly let her.

Once up she fell forward on her knees. Now she could hardly hear herself talking but she could feel the scream of warning tear from her throat, it was no use the boat soon rocked again. Every part of her hurt.

She closed her eyes. She didn't want to see herself sinking into the ocean. How could this be happening. Soon there was a soft noise whispering in her ear. It started light but got clearer as she opened her eyes once more. Everything was bright, then she felt like she was sinking. Her eyes were frozen open and she was paralyzed. She was surely sinking now, everything hurt.

There was rubble everywhere, she was glad she couldn't hear the screaming of the men on the ship. She should have predicted this. It was her fault two hundred men would no go home to see their families. She let herself sink and slowly closed her eyes as she watched a piece of paper float by her. It was Arthur's letter.

She didn't have the energy to reach out and get it.

She just let her eyes close, and her body soon sunk into darkness.

It was a quiet night. Alfred had been sleeping, maybe he was just tired of all of the worry for the war or wondering if Amelia would make it to Britain alright. He wondered how she would react when she got there.

But it was around midnight when he was jolted awake by a terrible white pain. He groaned and then attempted to sit up in bed, he was paralyzed and he was coughing terribly. He couldn't breathe, it wasn't until his eyes closed in this utter confusion he understood what was going on.

His muscular body tensed and he was ready to fight back. But he was seeing ocean, that was all he would see, but soon enough he saw the debris and all of the words made sense. The letter floated by him and he saw the words _dea—-melia…_

His eyes suddenly flew open and he let out a terrible cry of white hot pain. His voice was strained as he gasped screeching. "AMELIA! NO!" He had attracted enough attention that his human help had come in trying to wake him up. "SHE'S DEAD!" He screamed over and over and over. It was like torture, that even when the pain died down he was screaming for her over and over.

Like a broken man. He screamed, cried, and writhed around trying to grasp for her, but she was gone.

Heads were bowed in an eternal prayer, days or months later. Seven blond heads bowed in a forever silence. Tears were silent and mingled with the frozen air. It wasn't surprising when it started to snow.

There was a soft song in the background.

_Hush child, the darkness will rise_

_From the deep, and carry you down into sleep_

There was a terrible silence that could not be broken by the terribly haunting song. No one spoke to each other. For they had no words to say to one another, it was like the air ha grown frigid and was filled with weight.

It was slowly sinking down on those seven blond heads. No one touched, no one whispered, there was only tears and silence.

It seemed that would be all there was forevermore.

**************

 

**_No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new._ **

**_-Steve Jobs_ **

"Shh bärchen…es is alles gut.," The voice whispered softly to Alfred's broken ears. Alfred honestly felt like he was falling into a blackening hole. Everything was dark for a while and there was only a hand gently stroking his hair and providing him comfort. He just fell into a half conscious sleep.

For a while it was this blackened hole that was only filled with unfamiliar language and soft touches, there was no death and only darkness. It wasn't an intense darkness but it was a soft gentle welcoming one that whispered to him through all of the haze,"Stay with us Alfred,"

So he did. For what seemed a long time, he didn't want to have to deal with the fact that his brother was dead, his mind just didn't accept it. It couldn't have happened, because countries couldn't die.

It was only a nightmare! He just needed to open his eyes!

It took a lot of struggle to tear away from the darkness.

His darkened blue eyes opened and the room shook a bit. He began to sit up and felt something cold pressed to his forehead. He began to sit up and reached up to move the towel from his forehead. The cold, damp fabric weighed heavily in his hand, he wasn't sure where he was. It was a bit confusing as he looked about.

It was a dark room made from concrete. There were not any windows and there was a single light handing from the ceiling. It was all a bit hazy and there was a sting in his chest for a moment and then it ceased. He sighed and pushed covers off of him and flexed his shoulders.

_Wait._ His distant mind grumbled. _I'm home. I can feel it… Am I in a bomb shelter? No… I've seen those… I am underground aren't I? It's a bit chilly._

He slowly got up and looked about the room. It was an underground bunker. One to be used if they were to enter into another war. Also if they got bombed. He felt the room shake a bit and then felt another fiery pain in his chest.

_No…_

It wasn't a dream. Something had happened, his heart plummeted to the ground, he felt his fingers shake. _Matt— Canada…_ He started to think wanting to sink into the ground and die along with him.

He didn't have enough time to grieve before a simple knock at the door was placed in his ears through all of the white noise in his head. He put both of his hands on the sides of his head and then ran his fingers through his hair, he was trying to keep from losing his head.

"C-Come in.," He said his voice was a bit shakier than he had planned. He cleared it a bit as the door opened. He wished he would have seen his brother, happy as ever, or even Francis, but he only saw a half cheery Italian, a grumpy one, an albino, and an angry Spaniard.

He inspected them, Feliciano was leaning on a short cane and grasping his brothers arm tightly. He had dark circles under his eyes and his usual peppy happy curl had sunken down, his eyes held the smallest bit of pain. Alfred slowly recalled how he had been gassed and such.

Lovino's eyes stared at the ground and his arms were crossed. He looked a bit frailer than usual but nothing too bad. His cheeks were stained red with an angry blush like usual.

Antonio looked at Alfred directly with a bit of controlled anger in his eyes. He had a black eye and his shirt was half buttoned with a bandage around half of his collar, he inhaled sharply and his ands were on his hips in a pissy impatient look.

Now Gilbert was looked as normal as could be. He was his thin, half-muscular self, a shell of someone who used to be greater than god himself, but the modern version. He then looked straight at Alfred with a look the American didn't recognize. He didn't have the strength to decipher the look, another tremor shook the building.

"Ciao Alfredo!" Feliciano chirped happily. He offered a wide smile,"Hello," Alfred replied dully, he felt s soft pain enter his chest and sighed not dampening in his composure. Lovino was mumbling something to himself in a hushed tone. He didn't look up once.

Feliciano hobbled forward and soon there were arms around him. He had to fight the instinct to push them off,"Grazie! You saved me and fratello!" he said rather happily. His eyes were shinning happily and he giggled happily,"Yeah. You would have been fine without me," He said,"Maybe coughing but you would have been fine," He said coldly as the Italian let go of him and then retreated back to his brother. Lovino mumbled something that he could have meant a thank you or something of the sort.

They began to talk but Alfred was toning them out. He couldn't hear a thing but white noise in his mind. He then let his shoulders sag. he looked down at his raw knuckles, they were bruised and cut up from fighting. He looked up and began to hear,"Alfred!?"

His attention cut up and he was staring straight into the eyes of an irritated Spaniard,"Alfred please. Pay attention—,""Is he dead? Like really dead?" Alfred asked bluntly. Soon the grassy green eyes changed from angry to sympathetic,"Bombs hit his country. There was nothing you could do to save him,"

Alfred went silent and then he took in a deep breath,"Okay," That was all he said. Gilbert who had been silent until now cleared his throat,"Alright so. We should take you to the meeting room. There's an emergency meeting. I guess you should know that Francis is missing as well along with some other great powers… Ivan… Yao.. Also—," The room began to shake a bit and Gil paused.

"Were being attacked from both countries and now Canada. I expect that soon others will join in.,""Both countries?""Great Britian and France,"

This was some what of a confusion to Alfred, but it would explain why they were in the bunker," Is it just here or—,""It's everywhere, Italy, Germany, your country, Spain, even Japan, Were all planning what to do with some counter strikes soon.,"

Alfred felt his blood running cold, it was a bit unnerving, knowing that most of the world powers were missing, all but him. Well at least they were what he considered world powers, Russia was one of the strongest, biggest nations other than him.

He sighed and watched as the four began to lead them away. Everyone had gone silent and all that could be heard was the dirt work up on the ground. Every once and a while you would hear a bomb hitting and the lights would go out or the room would shake. Alfred would feel a little bit of pain in his chest, but honestly It wasn't anything that he couldn't handle.

He just kept walking going over the news that he heard in his head. _Does this mean..? Does this mean that they are against us now? France and Britain. They are rather strong, I mean, They could hurt us pretty badly. Now he says that Russia can join the opposing side. How this this possible? It starts with her… Who is she..? I thought that I understood, I understood who she was. But it all left me. She keeps speaking to me. But who is she? What does she want from us? It's terrible. Why is she doing this to all of us? My brother's dead! What does it all mean?!_

He felt the world beginning to smudge with weakness. He couldn't see very well with the lump in his throat growing as he thought more and more. He blinked them away as quickly as they had come, it was a moment of weakness, and nothing more than that. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked back to see Gilbert looking at him. The others had fallen a few feet ahead of them.

"I understand this is a difficult time for you…""Really? You understand?" Alfred said rather brutally,"You found your brother hanging from a rope? Death in his eyes. Remembering the last thing you told him was to fuck off," he then looked him in the eyes with a terribly dead look,"I didn't think you did!" Soon Prussia had grabbed his arm and tugged him back to keep him from walking off,"—But you have to look around and realize a lot more people are going to die, they will, but you can stop some of their deaths. 'How could you ever _understand_ Gilbert?!' I watched many people die and fade from my life, getting into a haze will do nothing for you. Not for anyone," He said looking straight into Alfred's eyes,"You need to pull all of yourself together. We all will miss Matthew bärchen, but you are going to have to avenge his death and defeat this invisible enemy. Do you understand?"

Alfred's lips quivered like he was about to yell something back. He then yanked his wrist from the others grip and stomped away to the meeting room.

He didn't want to realize how right those words were.

Francis sat in the dinning area of the air ship that they were supposedly on. Amelia had let him go from his restraints and hadn't locked his door. He sat there sipping some sweet French dessert wine.

It was red of course, red wine was his favorite. He waited for something to happen, anything to be honest, she had taken over his military and he was left there sipping wine and looking out at the clouds that danced over his head.

What strange things he would do. He should have just left, and sacrificed Arthur to the elements of this, but he couldn't. His heart would have bled if he had watched the smaller man die. It was a strange thing, the heart, it felt so much. He had always believed in love, love for someone special, no matter their gender, no matter their race.

But it wasn't until life or death that those feelings showed, most likely not reciprocated in a desirable way. He sipped his wine and glared at the ground feeling that a light had been turned out in his heart. He had to stay with Arthur, to keep an eye on him, make sure that he wasn't going to be killed.

He was so old yet still needed to be looked after. Francis chuckled and brought the glass to his lips chuckling. _I suppose I have be come his keeper. Have I not?_ he thought half heartedly. He sighed and ran a hand through his unbrushed long hair. He would have to ask this Amelia where one would be, surely a female of her stature would have some sort of hair care products.

He was about to stand and leave when he heard the door swing open. He didn't bother to turn for a moment,"I am being good! Being I am one of the only people on this ship that have half a mind," He complained. Setting his glass down he waited for a response that wouldn't come.

He sighed feeling that his lack of hairspray made him impatient. It took a moment for him to turn and see a wide eyed and confused person who he cared for so dearly. Arthurs black eyes hadn't changed, and it broke Francis heart to see him looking so mindless, he usually had so much fight and so much spirit inside of him, it was as if those eyes swept it all away.

His torso was covered with a simple white shirt and some sweatpants. His hair was a mess (at least one thing about him was familiar), His fingers twiddled back and forth as he looked at Francis.

In other words, he didn't dress like Arthur at all, and Francis wouldn't have that. He stood up shaking his head and chuckling,"Non, Non, Non…" He drifted off and walked around the Brit in circles,"You look so… what is the word? Frumpy," He said then touching Arthurs lengthy hair. Now that wasn't like him at all either, it easily covered his eyes and was just a mess.

Arthur looked as if he half understood Francis, but his mouth and tongue were lame at the moment. He couldn't say anything but he made a squeaking noise of confusion. Francis chuckled, low and masculine,"If you beg of me. I will help your style, and cut that hair of yours," he said taking a lock of it between his fingers and getting close and smelling it.

He still smelled like Arthur.

He then held out his hand and motioned for Arthur to take it. He was going to bring Arthur back, he wasn't going to let him remain a slave for the rest of his life. Wouldn't that be terrible.

Soon he felt a soft velvety hand in his own. Reminding him how Arthur's skin felt, it was so soft, it was so hard to imagine. He loved the touch of the other, all of those years ago when they had hooked up and done things that made him feel, he remembered how soft his skin was.

His eyes looked down and he looked the silenced Brit up and down,"Can you speak at all?" He asked softly, his eyes didn't look over to Arthur's, he didn't want to see the deadness behind them.

Arthur shrugged squeezing Francis hand and smiling with his crooked teeth. He took in a deep breath and then opened his mouth and no words came out. Francis squeezed his hand back,"Well for once, I will do all of the talking, and you will do all of the listening,"

Arthur then took a deep breath and he seemed to agree.

Francis looked down at the ground and smiled sadly, he had a lot of work to do, and would need a lot of hope.

He slowly steered him toward the bedroom. Smiling to comfort the mindless Brit, but he felt a terrible frown in his heart.

Then meeting got off to a terrible start. It was basically filled with disorganization and unfocused people. America was sitting in the corner simply pouting from what Prussia had said to him. Italy Verenziano was sitting and trying to calm Germany down who was scolding his brother for doing something. The nordics were on their own bickering about god knew what in Swedish or Finnish. It was hard to tell what was going on to someone walking into the room.

Erika walked into he room tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear and looking around for her big brother. She cleared her throat and tried to speak throughout the mess but she couldn't hear herself talk so it was a bit useless.

She inhaled and parted her lips looking around for someone she knew. She inhaled and exhaled deeply closing her eyes momentarily and parting her lips. "Hello?" She whispered sheepishly. Keeping her head in all of the confusion she walked around hearing lots of yelling. There was some in German, which she cringed at, she understood all of the harsh long words that Germany was speaking to his brother.

That was some nasty stuff. She looked around for a soul to speak with, everyone seemed to be in some sort of conflict. Hungary was yelling at Germany for scolding Prussia, Austria was just around the argument to find something to argue about. She didn't see Ukraine anywhere. She scanned around carefully as she walked and eventually ended up bumping into someone.

"—Oof! I uh, apologize," She started before she looked at who she had bumped into. "Uh…Mr. America…" She said as she began to back up. He looked like he was going to kill someone. His bond hair was messy and his glasses laid with a bit of slack on his nose. He had bruises all over his face and black eye. He looked like he had been in a fight, there were bandages covering a bit of his collar through his shirt. There was a lit cigarette in his mouth and he was taring off into no where. She wasn't sure if he had heard her words and began to back up before,"You're fine… Liechtenstein…" He had whispered in this pained voice.

"Are you okay Mr. America? You look pained," She began softly,"I am really good at helping people feel better with medicine." "Why not just fuck off—." She was about to do just that with an open mouth but he stopped, he looked as if he had just been stabbed which was strange because he had been the one to say the insult. "I-I'm sorry. I meant to say that I am fine…" He said bringing the cigarette from his mouth and blowing smoke into the air."Mr. America?" "Yeah?" "I'm sorry that you are hurting inside." "…" "I can get you anything?" "No…" She was about to turn around before she heard something. "…But thank you…" He said soft as she turned and offered a smile to him. Though it was forced, he showed a small smile back.

Liechtenstein walked around the meeting room breathing softly in and out. She hoped that her big brother was in here and okay. He was her world, she didn't know what she would do with out her big brother.

She opened her mouth and looked around,"Big bruder?! Big bruder?!" She yelled around looking for him, his blond hair was such a platinum color that it stuck out in the crowd. She felt relief flood her as she ran up and hugged him from behind. Vash made a soft gasping noise and then began to relax, "Erika, you should not scare me like that." He said before turning and bending down softly and touching her cheek. "You were late coming from your room and I was worried."

She shuffled her feet. "Well, I had some girl things to take care of. What has happened big brother, I feel as if I cannot remember what happened at the last meeting." Switzerland sighed,"You must have hit your head pretty hard. We were attacked my some unknown person. Many strong countries are missing," He pointed to America,"The one that looks like him is dead."

_His brother? I can never remember his name… that is why he is sad…_

"How is it possible for a country to die?" She asked filled with confusion,"His country was heavily bombed by the missing countries. We do not know what has happened to them… This could be a plan or it could be the work of the… the.. screen lady." She then furrowed her brow," What do you mean big bruder?" She asked then breathing in and out with a small bit of contained nervousness.

"This is much like a puppet show. There is a master puppeteer behind this, and she is pulling all of the strings."


	7. Chapter 7

It was something about drifting with the waves that was comfortable. Like there wasn't a worry, she had ran out of oxygen a long time ago. So she was basically inhaling water and exhaling it. Maybe she was unconscious and dreaming, but it was like she was a mermaid, Arthur always used to tell her and her brother when they were small.

_"Once a long, long while ago, there was a man, a pirate at that. He was a clean shaven, blond bloke, he was rather handsome, women came from every corner of the earth to this pirate-." A small little voice interrupted the story,"So he was like you Iggy!?" Arthur paused and them ruffled the little boys hair kissing his forehead. "He was a lot like me."_

_Amelia then looked at Arthur,"You was a pirate?" She asked blinking her little doe eyes. Arthur smiled and then cupped her cheek,"I was a pirate love." He said smiling wider than Amelia had ever seen. "Ha. But back to our story, this pirate named..." He paused and motioned with his hand for the children to give him a name._

_Amelia looked over to her brother and whispered something to him softly. He nodded and then Alfred smiled,"Dingle-beard!" Arthur blinked and then chuckled,"Yes, that was him! Old Dingle-beard!" Amelia giggled at the name."Now this story is about, a discovery that ole Dingle-beard made on his way to Asia. Now like many men of his time, he was in love with the sea. Oh how he loved when the waves would roll under his ship named the..."_

_Amelia looked around and then she saw Alice come into the room. Her happy heart fluttered. "Alice!" "Ah yes it was named the Alice-. Wait Amelia! Come back you haven't heard the entire story." She had hopped out of her seat at the table and then ran into Alice's arms giving her a big hug. "Come and sit with us! Artie is telling us a story! About a pirate!" Alice had nuzzled her cheek,"Is he? And I wasn't invited! I know much about pirates little one!" "Poppycock you were home while I was-." Alice chuckled,"As far as you know." She sneered and then stuck out her tongue at the Brit._

_"Oh well then do go on with our story on old Dingle-beard." Alice sat in a chair next to Alfred, he giggled and smiled brightly. "Oh right I remember him! A scrawny lad he was! Always whining about one thing or another, 'My gin doesn't taste right Alice, take it back!' Or, 'Alice are you making this mutton out if sawdust?-" "He was a strong man!" She smirked and them rolled her eyes playing with Amelia's hair._

_"Anyway, one day he was setting sail to where?" "Asia!" "To Asia! He was on this lovely boat called the Alice. She wasn't just a boat, she was the toughest ship there was! But one day on their way to... Erm Asia... They ran into a mystical island. And on that island there was a mystical kind hiding in the lagoon."_

_Amelia was smiling from ear to ear. "They landed and began to explore the island and at last they found the lagoon. Now old Dingle-beard, he saw a fish moving in the water and smiled telling his crew how they were going to be eating well tonight. But just as he was about to pull out his gun to shoot at the water, he saw hair!" "Hair?" Arthur questioned hoping she wasn't going to scare the kids. He looked to Alfred who was watching intensely,"Hair, it was this lovely blond hair dyed with little streaks of what color Alfred?" She asked playing with Amelia's hair. "Purple!" He cheered._

_Arthur huffed,"Taking over my story...now...my little boy is saying purple..." Alfred giggled and then leaped up from his seat and went to go and hug Arthur. "Aww who is my sweet boy Alfred." He said lifting him and putting him in his lap. Alfred giggled and then smiled._

Amelia's swollen lips formed into a smile. She loved that story.

_"Anyways soon a head emerged from the water. It was a beautiful head with a face like one of your dolls." She said to Amelia. "Now this pirate was so taken aback by this woman's beauty he dropped his weapon. Then he saw she was half woman half fish! A mermaid!" She said smiling._

_"Then the mermaid swam up to the shore and she-"_

Amelia frowned as the memory began to be drown out by the water sound. She coughed underwater and then heard a noise. It sounded like she was hitting some rapids. She felt the water in her lungs jarring around as she attempted to fight back with her noodle arms.

"Amelia! No! No! No! AHHHHH! SOMEONE HELP! IT ALL HURTS TOO BAD!"

The words floated around her head as she began to lift toward the shore. Was she dying? Maybe she was finally dying, all of this water in her lungs made it impossible to walk on the shore. She didn't struggle anymore she was just brought up.

It was all too soon where she felt stationary.

She felt something shoving at her chest, it hurt a whole lot. She felt the water rapidly tearing itself from her lungs. She felt it come up in waves of water and vomit from her bloated stomach. There was a sweet caress on her cheek." _Princesa._.." She heard into her ear as her chest was pumped again.

With every desperate cough of water and her stomach movement upward her body began to feel lighter. She felt the soft thumb on her cheek drawing life back into her. A whimper tore from her mouth. She couldn't speak, it seemed like her tongue took up her entire mouth.

Everything seemed to weigh more. To her drown ears she heard a soft voice," _No...está...aqui..._ " The words were distorted and to her broken ears it was almost impossible to hear.

Alfred seemed to be making a full recovery. As Alice had expected, a few months after the accident he was already improving, this was after the procedure of course, it had been almost twenty years since her death. Alice sighed as she walked down the halls of the American's oversized mansion. It was much too big for once person, her and Arthur agreed on that, but he was more of a lustrous kind of man, he liked things that were big and flashy.

She sighed looking at the paintings on the wall. Most were of the presidents in the past, there was one of a little girl that Alice had known well, hell she had payed for the painting. The girls smile was eternal. Those perfect white teeth shone through the canvas, her blond curly hair formed a halo around her head as she posed accordingly.

Even though Amelia had been erased from Alfred's mind. She had convinced Arthur to keep this painting in the Americans mansion. Her eyes almost feared up, she had never heard of one of the pair in a country dying and the other surviving. She hadn't heard of one dying like Amelia.

Amelia had a special place in her heart. Even though they had their differences, she had loved that dirty little blond girl. She felt a smile come to her cheeks, a genuine one.

"Alice! How's my best girl doin'?" A voice said causing her to turn almost entirely around," That's a highly improper way to greet me." She said with a scowl on her face. Her pretty features had distorted into disgust,"Especially after giving no response to our radio calls! Honestly where is your head? Is it up your arse? Because that is the only way that I can understand no response."

"Alice let's take this into my office..." He paused momentarily looking at the painting,"Who is that?" He asked with a confused voice, his brows knit together and Alice could almost see the gears working in his head. "I don't even remember where that came from. Weird, this wall is lined with important people, then we have this unknown girl." He shrugged and then sighed walking into the room.

Alice froze for a few moments. She wasn't sure if she was to feel joy for Alfred's recovery or for the loss of her Amelia. Oh that dear child, she had loved her so, it was impossible how she loved her, so entirely impossible. "Whatever, come on in. Excuse the mess- Allie? You alright? You look like you're gonna cry." He asked peeking out through the door.

"The blitz makes my head hurt. Do you have any earl grey on you?" Alfred then nodded and walked to his desk dialing a number,"Earl Grey for the lady, and get me some expresso." He spoke into it,"Don't call me Allie." She groaned rather bad tempered. She then breathed out and sat down in one of the chairs in front of Alfred's desk. "Ever since we entered this bloody war I can't stand up without feeling like my cookies have already been tossed." She grumbled actually slouching in the chair.

"Well why don't you stay over for the night?" Alfred suggested leafing through some paper,"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Al, I can't do anything until my boss lets me, you know that." He looked up with emotion clear in those big blue eyes. "Maybe we can start sending supplies. You need weapons and such right, turns out I'm a war machine," he concluded with a chuckle.

Alice was hardly listening,"Alright..." Her voice was almost non existent. She slouched in her chair and then rubbed her heart cringing, it was almost like she could hear the bombs, the people screaming, it all hurt.

She suddenly felt a warm hand on her cold one, rubbing it in gentle circles. "Alice, I'm going to take you to bed now. Alright?" She nodded lucidly,"Alright..." Her entire posture changed to just a rag doll. She laid there limply and her head slouched against her chest,"Just give it a few moments..." She whispered as she listed to his heartbeat.

"Alice! Come on! You're taking so long!"

Her closing eyes flashed open at the voice, was she hearing something, she was hearing that voice."I'm coming dear...don't be so impatient...well get there In enough time..." She heard Alfred say something but it didn't really matter. She was hearing her again, it wasn't long before everything started to fade in a feverish fashion. Her voice began to fade too,"Alice-?" The feminine voice whispered into her ear.

Then it all turned black.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Alice awoke she was clinging to something. That terrible pain in her chest had subsided, she knew the cause of the pain, it happened every once and a while when the blitz killed too many people.

Her face was pressed against something firm, very firm. She blinked a few times drowsily and began to heist herself up and off of this firm pillow like thing, only it wasn't a pillow. It was a chest, a male one, her face began to redden as she began to let her eyes travel up the body, seeing the parted white dress shirt on the body of a muscular man. She just about jumped out of her skin when she found the face that belonged to the man, a pair of glasses lay messily on him and his face dosed off in sleep.

Her cheeks turned red before she looked down at herself. She was still dressed in her uniform, the only things missing were her tights and her slippers. She breathed out softly feeling her breath pick up. Not knowing what was driving her she pulled her skirt up in the slightest and she got up on her hands and knees, maybe she was hallucinating, or maybe she was dreaming, but she slowly removed her own glasses and exhaled setting them down on the nightstand and welcoming the blurred world around. She slowly straddled Alfred's lower torso, putting the slightest bit of weight on his stomach because she was much too tired to support herself. Then slowly she began to unbutton his shirt.

"Alice what are you doing?" She heard distantly behind her,"I need...to feel you again...this is the closest way..." She murmured. She then breathed out as another shot of protest came from behind her,"Alice this isn't right! He isn't me!" Alice slowly began to shut the voice out,"Alice-!" Alice then began to kiss at Alfred's neck which made his body squirm a small bit.

"Uwah..." His voice mumbled as his blue eyes began to open. She could hardly see him but his mouth opened and she could have sworn that his face turned an entire different color of red,"Alice-?!" He had began but he was cut off, she gently pushed her lips onto his. She rubbed her fingers through his hair and let them dance there. The little nation breathed out through her nose as she kissed him. He was so warm, always warm, that was the Americas. They were always warm.

His hands began to migrate to her back. Rubbing in soft circles and beginning to peal off her shirt. They broke away as her shirt came off and was thrown into the corner. Then they weren't human anymore, they weren't even nations, they were hungry animals craving the touch of another.

Their bodies melted into one as Alfred began to stick his tongue into her mouth. She met his tongue and fought for dominance, his ultimately winning and beginning to explore her mouth. She felt his gentle hand caressing her cheek and slowly migrating around her back. Soon enough his hand had unclipped her brazier. She felt the gentle freedom dance across her skin as she felt herself laid down on her back. The soft cushions on her chest moved slightly as Alfred now towered over her. He didn't break their kiss at all he just kept going, somehow the control had shifted from her to him. His gently calloused hands stroked her cheek as he kissed her. Soon he broke the kiss for air. He breathed in as his hands began to work down her body, it was like he wanted her entirely nude. He began to work off her skirt and soon she was dressed in nothing but her panties.

She breathed out and then sighed looking upward at the man. Her cheeks were red, very red as she looked up at his blurry figure. His tongue traced up from her lower stomach. He knew what he was doing and that surprised her. Soon her hands and gone to his belt buckle attempting to undo it.

Once succeeding her hands began to unbutton his pants. Her finger shook with adrenaline. Some enough his lips had been put around her left breast and he was slowly sucking at her nipple, not too roughly at all it was rather gentle, it sent waves of curious nerves down to her chest causing her to squirm a little.

She gave a little gasp and then returned to her task and slowly began to work his trousers off. He continued to suck on her bare breast. She felt her fingers begin to massage through his boxer, something began to move down there. His entire body seemed to change its composure. He was exciting as she slowly let her fingers massage the oversized lump in his pants.

This was so wrong. It didn't feel wrong, but it was, she was materializing Alfred, making him her Amelia, she hadn't realized how she loved the American until the day she heard the news Amelia was dead.

She felt Alfred push her down into the bed and he took a deep breath. "A-Alice... Should we be...?" His face contorted unto pleasure as she began to stick her hand down his boxers. "Yes." He gave a face and then she flipped him over. He was on his back now as she bent down and slowly peeled away his boxers. He propped himself up in his elbows and let out a groan.

"Alice..." She bent down and licked the swollen member. "Shut up, just enjoy it." She said looking up and then began to suck on the member gently. His eyes didn't leave hers as she sucked on him. His hands ran through her hair and just gripped it.

"Oh god... Alice... Alice please..." He mumbled as she gasped. He just began to thrust into her open mouth. She almost gagged and she breathed out through her nose. This went on for a short amount of time before Alfred opened his mouth,"I'm going to- gah! ah! hah!" Before she knew it she was coughing and gagging on a salty seed in her throat. It burned as it went down.

Alfred wasn't stopping though. He flipped them pressing her into the sheets and yanking her panties down here legs and then spread her legs beginning to rub her. She gasped as she continued to cough. "A-Ah!" Her voice was surprised.

He breathed out and then began to kiss her neck. She felt herself totally letting him take control. She let out a cough every once and a while or a moan. Soon enough he felt the others finger dip into her. It was cool inside touching her warm walls. She gasped softly and then felt the urge to struggle away.

He added another finger and he pushed it inside of her. She gasped and then suddenly felt them removed, her eyes squeezed shut. She felt a pressure between her hips and let out a groan. He was in her. She gasped and clung to him as he did the process of going into and out of her.

Soon he let out a shudder before pulling himself out of her. A sticky liquid leaked from him as he breathed out.

Alice's eyes stared up at the ceiling.

Her eyes blinked softly and she soon found herself falling deep into sleep.

**************

 

 

When Erika opened her eyes in the morning she felt her surrounding unfamiliar. She also felt a small pain in her right knee. It ached a bit in an unfamiliar way. There was no sunshine filtering through the bunker underground. Her pain made her wonder if she was being attacked. Maybe she had only slept strangely, when she was younger she used to do that and hurt her neck. Vash had told her she had to sleep on her back or her stomach from then on.

She blinked and sat up. Her usual frilly pajamas were replaced with an oversized uniform that Alfred had provided in each of the rooms. It was much too big for her. She breathed out and folded up the sleeves gently, making sure that each fold was even to the next.

It sure wasn't a normal morning, but it felt like it would be rather normal. She heard a brief knock at her door and then someone stepped in.

"Erika!" She heard before turning so she could see in the bed. "Mrs. Liz! I didn't see you at the meeting!" She said rather enthusiastically. She hopped out of bed and slowly curtsied though she really hadn't the need, she wasn't wearing a skirt or a dress even, and Elizabeta hated it when she did that.

"Oh don't be so polite!" She said in her thick accent,"How are you feeling Erika? I know that Europe is getting pretty badly bombed. Have they hit you yet?" The small blond shook her head, her bob was at many different angles and this seemed to bother her older friend. Hungary walked to the drawers and sifted through until she found a comb.

She then focused her attention back on the young girl. "Oh yes I am fine miss- I mean Liz, I am worried for big brother though…" She tailed off then breathing out softly and then attempting to brush the ruffles out of the greenish jumpsuit.

"Ah, there is no need to be worried for him Lichty! He is big and strong and the entire world is working together to try and fix this problem."

"Mrs. Liz…"

"I have told you a thousand times not to call me that! Call me Liz!"

"Oh.. Liz…

the Hungarians attention was suddenly shift to the little girl with a peak of interest at her pause in words, sure the little girl was quiet and well mannered, but she looked half disturbed. "What is it?'

"How many countries have been taken by this enemy?"

Elizabeta paused her eyes taking a serious note,"I suppose you deserve to know," She started,"We are missing China. We are missing France. England has been gone since day one. We are missing some of the baltics. We are missing...Russia," She seemed to pause there,"That blond one that looks like America, Cana-something, he's dead… Latvia's body was found as well, you know before he vanished…" She then massaged her temples,"Austria is alright, Prussia is surprisingly alright, and so is your brother. So I wouldn't worry." She said but her tone was rather grim,"I guess it is good that we have only two deaths…" She said softly,"But when they say they have had the power to abduct Russia… that scares me...'

Erika nodded and then slowly reached out her hand to hold the others,"Me too."

*********

Arthur had no idea how long he had been standing there. Watching and waiting for Alfred to calm himself. Of course he wasn't going to get in between him and his punching bag. now that was just dangerous. He seemed to be in some sort of training room. It was American whatever it was.

He kept punching hole in all of the punching bags he was using so he had to keep tearing them down and putting new ones up. Which was even worse than punching the broken one. He huffed with every bag he had to throw in the pile of discarded ones.

He wasn't sure how many he had been beating but by it seemed to have become an impressive pile.

"Great job Alfred. Now if you would like to stop pouting and become part of the solution, that would be greatly appreciated!" Alfred whipped around, he knew that voice, those words, that slang. He had this look in his eyes that brightened them instantly. Maybe with a little bit of confusion or something of the sort.

"England!" He yelled before ditching the bag completely and then running to the Brit. He didn't look any different from his usual. He had angry eyes though. They were dark blue, instead of their usual light cheery blue color. He wasn't smiling or laughing either.

He grabbed Arthur and picked him up pulling him into a hug. He swung him back and forth then feeling an eternal glee in his heart. "Oh my god. You're alright-" "Not really! You're crushing my ribs!"

He set him down quickly smiling so hard, Arthur wasn't sure if that was natural"You're tearing up, America. You are supposed to be strong," The Englishman said with a chuckle. He then began to wipe away the American's tears in a brother like way.

"You scared the crap out of me! I was so scared you weren't coming back! I thought that you were dead like Matt-," He could hardly even finish his sentence without crying. "What?! What are you talking about Alfred?" He asked.

Alfred's gaze looked to him with rapid tears forming and spilling down his cheeks. "He's dead-. He died-." Arthur's eyes widened as he watched the American slowly breaking then shattering right in front of his very eyes. He slowly wrapped his arms around Alfred.

They said nothing for a few minutes. There was no noise but sobbing from the American and a painful silence from Arthur himself. _How can a country die? Are they under attack? Are we under attack? All of this makes my head hurt. God, he is really crying. How did this happen? Why can't I remember if there is an attack. Shouldn't I feel it? It would hurt if I was getting bombed. He's trembling. I should have him sit. Wow, this feels as it did back then. I never thought that he was open like this?_

He slowly rubbed Alfred's back and began to lead him back over toward some of the fallen bags. The fuller bags would make lovely seating for them. After kicking one he sat Alfred down, who basically collapsed. "Calm down. It is going to be alright."

"Now that you're back. It will be…" Alfred whispered resting his chin on the smaller mans shoulder. "About that. Where _exactly_ have I been? I remember the last meeting, but that is all I remember…" Alfred looked down. "I don't know where you came from… Didn't you swash and buckle your way back here? You know, on your _own?_ "

Arthur offered a shrug.

Then they began to shake. It wasn't just the two of them, the entire room was shaking. "Arthur I think this is an earthquake! We need to get above ground immediately!"

"Where are we if we are not above ground! We are in a bunker! Did you remember anything about coming down here?" Arthur blinked trying his hardest not to fall over," Alfred I don't remember how I got here-!" He started to yell above the noise.

But then he felt something. Something grabbed his ankle and drug him down on the mats below. He let out a cry as Alfred shouted something, He was trying to fight off this _thing,_ but he was miserably failing to get its grip off.

He felt it slowly enveloping him. Its cold, wet mass seemed to envelop him. He felt his lower body grabbed by a force pulling him the other way with a massive amount of strength. "I won't let you go England!" Was the words shouted above the noise.

He felt fear spike through him. No he couldn't let whatever this was get Alfred too. He had to protect that crying boy he had hugged moments ago. "Alfred! Let me go! This isn't real!" He yelled, somehow those words came to mind. This wet unknown slime couldn't be real. He couldn't remember how he even got into the room, this had to be some sort of dream, or it had to be something.

"What are you talking about?! It has to be real!" He shouted.

_If this is a dream. Then Alfred isn't real, but he is acting like he would. Well, mayeb minus the crying but who knows?! It must be real! If I have no idea of all of the things he is speaking of? Of Matthew dying? That cannot be real, right? I just have to let him fall into sleep or jolt awake. What am I talking about? He can't be the real Alfred. This is so bloody hard!_

Snapping out of his thoughts the Brit inhaled sharply,"Alfred! Let go! Just do it! It is just a dream!" He looked into the American's eyes and saw the fear and pain. "I can't! I don't want to lose you again!" Arthur then did something he probably shouldn't have,"I'll come back tomorrow night! Since this is a dream! Just be careful!" "But England-!" "Let go!"

With a disdainful look in his eyes he did. He let himself sinking into the gross mass of whatever this thing was. He looked up seeing Alfred once more before everything went black.

_Funny, how things work out…_

_************_

Francis sighed as he woke, breathing in and out he groggily checked around his areas. "Oi...Mon dieu…" he started to complain as he was beginning to sit up. It was rather confusing because something was clinging to him, he looked down and felt like his tired memory served for once.

He saw the messy haired Brit hugging him tightly, it seemed like he was some sort of teddy bear, that Arthur was hugging tightly in his sleep. He then took a deep breath and ran his hand through the Brit's hair. He had gotten Arthur dressed in some dress pants and a white long sleeved shirt. Arthur had needed help to tie the tie. Arthur hadn't wanted to change out of his outfit so he had just fallen asleep in it.

He smiled at the memory, it was funny when Arthur actually needed him. Well it was amusing, not exactly funny, deep down, it was rather painful.

He slowly caressed Arthur's cheeks as the Brit began to shuffle around in his sleep. He shivered and then shook his head,"Nnghhh…" He would mumble every once and a while, Francis then began to gently stroke his hair as Arthur's death grip around him tightened. He let out another little whimper. His brows furrowed and then he grit his teeth. He began to shake his head again.

At this Francis began to get worried. Maybe he should wake Arthur up, was that bad luck? Waking someone from a dream? Well Arthur looked like he was having a nightmare. He gently began to shake Arthur's shoulder. "Arthur wake up…" He whispered trailing off, the smaller blond shuffled and then shook his head again. "Arthur!" He said feeling the worry accumulate and begin to beat loudly in his chest. Arthur's eyes flashed open and the most frightening thing happened.

Arthur's eyes were normal for a moment but shaking in fear. Then the pupil shrank so small, Arthur's eyes had none for a minute, they they grew so large that they overtook the entire eye, dark and black they made his genuine boy-ish look eerie. Francis would have honestly cringed away from what had just happened to Arthur's eyes, if the Brit hadn't grabbed his bare chest and buried his face in it.

Francis took a moment and then sighed shaking his head. He slowly relaxed and began to stroke Arthur's hair."You gave me a fright little one… Did you have a bad dream?" He asked. He was expecting for the littler man to be crying from how badly he was shaking but he didn't hear a sniffle. There was only a neutral shrug from the Brit.

Arthur opened his mouth to speak but again his tongue was lame from Amelia's spell. He made some sort of squeaking sound of neutrality and then began to relax. He almost looked asleep again.

Francis sighed and then began to slowly lay Arthur down. He might as well get some sleep. He wanted to do some exploring of this place. Find what secrets she held. _Will Arthur be alright here? It doesn't seem like she is to use him for any sort of half-assed attack. I wonder who else is here with me. There has to be someone else. She would not just go for me. I do not even know this woman._

He sighed and slowly got up going to the closet and throwing a collared shirt on and some black pants. He left the Brit there, but not before covering him up. He would be safe in here right, that girl had come into his room but once.

He sighed and then walked out of the room. He inspected the surroundings and there was one person in the halls, but she was dressed like a maid, she had the same emotionless expression that Arthur had. Her eyes were fully black. She was only vacuuming the floor.

Francis rubbed his temples and then simply walked past her attraction no attention. She didn't seem to stray from her task. Just vacuuming and staring off into no where. Francis was a very attractive man, most women would have noticed, hell even the straight men looked at him in awe, he was sculpted from the gods.

He walked down the corridor and looked at the walls which were framed with photographs and old, very old paintings. They looked well kept, one that stood out was a laughing little girl. She seemed familiar and her cheeks were raised in a smile. Further on with the picture there was a boy running to her. Now he may have been wrong, but that little boy looked much like a young Alfred.

It was probably an American. They all looked the same to him.

Shrugging it off he began to try doors which assumed to all be locked at the moment. He had nothing to pick the lock as of now, but he would probably not be able to pick the lock. A hair pin would make it much easier for him to snoop around.

He sighed and looked around at the scanned the hall with curious eyes. He soon put his hand on another knob and tried to twist it open. He was worried that the girl was watching him. But what did he have to lose? He froze,

_I could always lose Arthur…_

That made him feel a little tingle of terror trickle through chest. He breathed out and shook his head, he had to try, he knew that Arthur was not a child in needing of protecting…

He knew that…

The thought of losing the Brit was more than unbearable. He just wanted life to go back to the way that it ought to be. Where Arthur was yelling at him, and he would bother him with his sexy talk. Maybe Alfred would be in the background munching on a burger whilst the quieter nation above him would be attempting to get his brothers attention.

Francis lips upturned into a smile as he imagined the scene in his head.

 _Then there would be that Germanic bastard yelling, yelling at someone, maybe his brother, oh Gilbert would be going wild over this._ He chuckled holding onto the door knob. _He would tell me I should just take advantage of Arthur… but the truth is I could never force my love on him… Whom else would be there? Oh there would be the polite little Japan. He would bow and talk softly, and who else maybe my dear Monaco would be there… maybe…_

A silent tear glistened down his cheek as he imagined it. He was just staring there at that door knob. He missed how things used to be, sure they weren’t perfect, but they were nice. He had liked them how they were.

He took a deep breath and slowly withdrew his hand.

There was a sudden clap of footsteps behind him and jumped, he gave a short gasp and looked behind him.

"Oh Arthur you gave me quite the fright!" The Brit's empty eyes glared at him, they were narrowed and his hands were curled up into fists. "Di-s-o-b-e-y-O-r-d-e-r-s!" He said in a near robotic voice. He gasped and then lunged forward.

_What? What has happened?_

He didn't feel himself hit the floor, but he was sure he was laying on the floor. He felt the need to fight but something was keeping him from doing so. He felt a pressure on his neck, like something was wrapped around it.

He blinked his eyes a few times. He heard something in the distance,

_Click_

_Click_

He then gasped softly, struggling for air and trying to get himself up. He looked up with swollen and bloodshot eyes to see that he was being choked by the person whom he was trying to save. "A-r-t-h-u-r!" His swollen voice cried out,"En-g-lan-d?!"

He then felt the grip on his throat begin to lessen.

It didn't matter though, he was fading like a flickering flame, from consciousness.

"Why do you make me hurt you?"

The question floated around for a short while in his mind, until it just disappeared.

In fact, everything started to dip away.

Then it was black.

 


	8. Chapter 8

 

_Amelia,_

_I understand now that you're gone you are never to read the words that I am writing, I understand that life wasn't supposed to be easy. I haven't wrote to you in years, it's not because I have forgotten for you, no, I haven't done that at all._

_Amelia I have a confession. That is the entire point of this letter._

_You understand how we, unlike mortals, have the ability to love differently._

_I loved you from the moment I met you. Sure I became your role model, your big sister, everything you wanted me to be. As the years went on my love changed. I saw what kind of person you had become after your independance and it scared me how much I had come to love that person, I understand we have had our trials and tribulations. But it matters not what way, but I love you Amelia, America…_

_With the kindest love,_

_Alice Kirkland_

Opening your eyes is always the worst part of a nightmare. For Amelia it was no different, her gentle cerulean orbs began to tear themselves open. She felt the hot summer heat bearing down on her as she gasped softly attempting to fill her lungs with the precious jewel of life. She closed her eyes and breathed in and out. She attempted to get up and sit up but it was useless. She was doomed to just lay here in pain.

" _Aye, princesa. Te despiertas."_ She heard whispered softly into her ear. She sighed gently and breathed out, she wasn't sure how long she had been waiting here, she had been wishing for a noise, for a voice, for something, it was nice to finally hear something or someone. It was like her voice was a soft cushion in her world of pain.

She inhaled and felt her semi-conscious state beginning to melt away. It brought a state of pain and angry limps, not wanting to move from the cast they had come to known. She felt her cerulean eyes blinking wildly attempting to allow them to drink in every aspect of the new room in which she was laying in. She felt the sounds of comfort filter through her ears. She sighed softly and began to try and force her weakened arms to push herself up but she was immediately pushed back down. "No, No, do not wake yet!" The voice said gently as she struggled.

She opened her cracked lips to try and say something but it was no use. Her speech came out as useless gargles. She remembered feeling cold and submerged in the water, but it was a fuzzy distant memory to her. She looked up seeing a dark complected woman looking down at her, she had light caramel colored skin, she was a rather stocky woman. Her hands felt frim and calloused fingers as they stroked her hair.

Amelia sighed out softly attempting to show she was awake. She couldn't say much and the woman didn't seem like she was responding to Amelia's soft gurgles. She acted like she couldn't hear her. Amelia's darted around the room when she questioned if she was captured. She was hardly sure she was alive, maybe she was in the afterlife.

If she was in the afterlife then why couldn't she talk. Maybe her throat was hurt in the crash. She wasn't sure what was happening but she was soon lulled back into sleep.

Alfred was sleeping when he heard a sound. It was much like the sound of a door opening. Now it was indeed a Saturday so Alfred was sleeping in. He didn't have any meetings until four o'clock and he was planning on sleeping until around noon or one. He blinked his fuzzy eyes and then looked around desperately for the source of the noise so he could stop it. Ultimately failing to find it he flopped back down with a messy bedhead.

He soon enough felt someone walking toward him, the footsteps creaked on the ground. The half awake American began to shuffle up again. He looked toward the door and whined,"Who is there?" He asked sleepily,"If it is England sneaking in before the meeting and trying to scare me, or make me piss the bed, I'm going to personally send you back to where you came from. By that I mean the dimension!" He whined. He then flopped back into bed and covered his eyes with his arm. Hiding so no light could get in. Arthur really liked to annoy him when he was in town, of course Alice would scold her male counterpart, but that didn't stop the Brit from annoying him to wits end.

He unable to fall back asleep sighed feeling unable to sleep on his back and turned onto his side. He sighed feeling himself gently falling asleep before there was another noise, this time he really didn't care anymore, if Arthur disturbed his sleep he was getting a firm kick in the face from him. He faintly heard footsteps that he frankly didn't care about whomever was trying to get into his room and mess with him. He just wanted to go back to sleep. He felt someone slide into bed with him wrapping hands around his waist and pressing their torso into his back.

It was soft, like a couple of pillows being pressed into his back. So he didn't move, he must have been imagining it or he had already fallen asleep. Either way, he was content, there was a gentle and hot breath on the back of his neck, it made him shiver softly but it felt right. Like this was supposed to happen. He heard her soft and feminine intake of air, her bare legs pressing into his own.

A gentle blush hit his cheeks feeling her neatly groomed and hairless legs touching his own. His body began to wake and he shivered gently before his drowsy mind came to the conclusion he was dreaming of a nude woman in his bed. For some reason he didnt want to touch her. Maybe not for the reason that was assumed. She didn't feel unattractive to him. She just felt wrong.

He not being able to stand the mystery she held, turned in her grip, in that split second where he was turning to see her something changed and the world began to melt around him. He blinked sitting up and looking around with dazed eyes. It was only a dream. _A dream,_ His mind whispered gently to him. He frowned softly and exhaled running a hand over his face, this was no time to be switching his mind to females.

He was exhausted that was all. It was angering that they were even having a world meeting today, he didn't enjoy at least two of the presences there anyways. There were at a bit of a race to space with the Russians and it was not going well so far. The Russians had managed to get a monkey on the moon which was impressive, but the debate for a human on the moon was still open.

He blinked blearily at the world before feeling around for his glasses. He slipt them on and sighed looking over at the clock. It was around two o'clock, the meeting wasn't for a while so he might as well begin to get ready. He exhaled in a whine and pulled himself into a sitting position. He heard his phone ring and sighed,"Who is this? You woke me up…" He played with the cord connecting it to the wall "YOU BLOODY YANK IT'S THE AFTERNOON! YOU SHOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN WAKE AND GREETING THE DAY-." The American did not allow the other to finish and just hung up. Arthur probably needed something so he would most likely call again.

Unfortunately Alfred wasn't in the mood for the recovering Brit to banter him with useless information, he had enough on his plate. With the annoying Russians, and the far morea annoying Cubans at the decided he would just shower and get dressed early. He chuckled to himself and then yawned gently. He closed his eyes and shook his hair quickly before stepping into the bathroom to get a shower.

The next time that Amelia's eyes opened she heard a rapid argument unfolding. It was in a language that she didn't understand in the most. It made her head ache and her mind groggy. She felt a little stronger than the last time. Like she could actually sit up. She felt an irritable silence fall between the two people arguing. They were rather blurry but from the way that their faces turned Amelia could tell that they were staring at her.

" _Yo dije,'Llama el ruso..'."_ A deep and romantically masculine voice said as Amelia blinked attempting to identify the language that they were speaking," _Llama el ruso. Ahora."_ His voice didn't really raise above a low speaking voice. He the stormed from the room. She heard a sigh and then looked closer to where the voice came from,"Lay back down…" She said in a broken accented voice. "I apologize, if I cause you trouble…." She whispered. Her mind was tired and groggy,"You are an enemy Amelia… You must know that you are now...an enemy…"

She opened her mouth to say something and then shut it. It took her a moment before she breathed out and then sighed,"I don't know you, do I?" She whispered,"No. You know me. Amelia you are in Cuba… Everyone thought you were dead. This… is a surprise…" She said gently,"I wish we met again in a different sort of standards." The Cuban woman said,"Yeah. I wish that we had met on different standards," She whispered in reply. She waited for a sound to continue the conversation but there was none.

There was only silence.

 

************

 

When Alfred woke there were tears in his eyes, his silent body threw itself up gasping and wheezing. His face was buried in his hands as soon as he woke from the nightmare, the way that Arthur had talked to him… it felt so real… it couldn't be real though. _People that are missing don't just… communicate… I'm crazy…_

His blond hair fell in front of his crystallized blue eyes. He needed to go hit something; he was going to go crazy. He threw on a pair of grey sweatpants and a white tank top. His dog-tags clinked around his neck with all of the rapid movements that he made. His footsteps were thundering and loud, he was so angry that all of this had happened! How could people just die like this?

Strapping on a pair of combat boots was the last thing that he had to do. He then thundered out the door, his eyes dilated with misunderstanding and delusion. It was almost impossible for a man to stay sane in a world like this. He didn't even make it outside. He sent one of his thundering fists into the wall. He was angry, angry that they took his only brother away from him, angry that they took everything! They took everything!

He eventually attracted the attention of another person. He hadn't even noticed their presence at first, of course with another country he would have. "Having fun?" He heard behind him. He whipped around and glared in the direction of a new known adversary. It was Prussia; Gilbert's red eyes were narrowed in seriousness.

Alfred was about to curse at him to go away when he was thrown a sword. "I trained you how to use one of these didn't I.?" The sheathe was decorated with crowned jewels and something in German was scribed within the hilt of the sword. "Fight me." He said. Alfred thought that this was absolutely nuts, he hadn't used a sword in ages. _Literally_ , he hadn't used a sword since Gilbert taught him when he was just becoming a country.

Alfred would have straight up denied the Prussian, but he had to get his angry aggression out some way. He felt his pupils dilate as the former kingdom drew his sword. Alfred did the same feeling the heavy weight in his arm. He swung it a few times as if he wanted to test its ability. He saw his reflection in the sword. He was a mess, ungroomed hair, beady eyes, and an angry expression. _Is this who I am now?_

He was caught off guard by the sound of Gilbert's first swing. It was directly toward his head and Alfred blocked it barely. America scowled angrily at the man standing before him. He heard the metal clank against his own and then decided that this meant it. He was going to put this old-timer back in his place.

"If I had a gun, I would shoot you," Alfred hissed. Gilbert chuckled, "What is it that you Americans say? Don't bring a sword to a gun fight?" Alfred rolled his eyes, "A knife dumb –ass." Gilbert smiled before holding his sword defensively. "Well what is it those terrorist say? Death to _you_ Mr. America."

Alfred felt a whole new wave of anger coursing through his veins. His eyes took on a new shade; they were a concentrated, light specs around the pupil. He squared his shoulders and then began to swing at the other. His swipes were clean, but were dizzy; they were that of a child. With this Gilbert chuckled and smiled. He knew that he would be able to counterattack with ease. Gilbert whacked Alfred's hand hair with the dull side of his sword. Affectively disarming the other man, easily he put his sword to the others throat. "How I wished these were still used on the battle field…"

Alfred just rolled his eyes and sighed. "You are such an ass." Alfred was about to get up off his ass when Gil bent down. He slowly put his sword up against the others throat and looked down into his eyes. Alfred felt confusion swell over himself as Gil's face got closer and closer. Alfred felt his eyes began to get more and more closed. He bent up as Gilbert's nose touched his own. Gil was practically straddling him it was impossible to feel anything else besides a deep emotion. Alfred felt like the child he was leaning up for his first kiss.

His chapped lips eventually met the others way too soft ones. Alfred's hands traced up the old kingdom's body and his eyes opened to see what was happening. Prussia's eyes were closed. His pale features made Alfred's eyes stay to remember each image that happened. His tongue was slowly pressed against the soft pink tongue of the other.

This was all happening so quickly Alfred didn't know what he should have felt. His body had not rejected the kiss, the cold metal still pressing his throat made him feel ever closer to the other. He felt the other softly pull away and he adjusted Alfred's glasses. He lowered the sword, and then looked down at Alfred. Without a word he slowly swept Alfred's hair from his face.

"Don't look so shell shocked. It was a kiss, not a family merger."

He slowly sheathed his sword. Alfred just watched for a moment before scrambling up," Y-Yeah I know! I just didn't think in a million years…. I would kiss a dead guy," He said quickly. He grabbed the sword and then quickly sheathed it.

Gil laughed, his face smiled widely and he laughed. Alfred hadn't seen someone laugh with that much heart in a long time. The way his pale features lit up, How his ruby lips curled and then spread. It was intriguing to the youth. Alfred was going to hand him the sword back. He got close very close, he obviously was taller than the other man.

Slowly, he cupped Prussia's cheek and then slowly kissed the others ruby lipped smile. It felt simple and real. That was that. They stood in the hall kissing. Unaware of the rest of the world.

When Francis opened his eyes it was dark outside. Or at least from where he was, he had a hand stroking his hair. He groaned softly and tried to look up, _Arthur? Arthur?_ His mind genuinely thought. He wanted the littler man to be above him stroking a gentle hand through his hair to make the pain in his neck go away.

But it was not Arthur.

"Nice to see you are awake." Her voice purred into his ear. "You know. I thought that you were being good, ha, can never trust a Frenchman can you?" She said. Her angry eyes darkened. "Where is he?" Francis croaked out. His head hurt so terribly, this was where loving someone got you. Coughing to death from getting choked out by them. Well of course that was not always the case, but right now that seemed to be.

"He thinks you're dead. He is crying in the other room. I think it's punishment enough for him not watching you. But you, you went to see what was going on hunh?" She then scowled. "Maybe you were punished enough? Or maybe I just didn't explain well enough. Last chance France. Don't go peeking around or I have no problem killing him."

Suddenly she stood and walked away from the bed that Francis was currently laying on. Francis heard the door open and running through the door was his slave-eyed love. Arthur's usual emotionless body was shivering. He quickly got next to the Frenchman and curled up and held tightly onto the others shirt.

"I am alright _mon petite_. Don't worry. No more bad dreams…" He whispered soft words to the little shaking man. He knew that Arthur was not in control of himself, it was the human moments that were like this where it shone the most. He knew his grumpy England was still in there.

"Hey, it is alright… Close your eyes and get some sleep for me.."

The black pupils looked up at him. They looked like they were telling him that, they would protect him. Arthur gave a little squeak of love before burrowing into the others chest. He was content. That was all that Francis needed. He was tired, and he just needed himself and his fuzzy headed little Brit.

That was how he lived. That was how he was certain he would die.


	9. Chapter 9

_My Dearest Amelia,_

_I haven't much time to write this to you. There is a great danger that is pressing against us. They have discovered a power within some of us that has provided great danger. If you were still alive I would try to get you somewhere safe. Amelia, I will be killed soon. I will be euthanized like an animal. I apologize for being so far from you when I tell you this news. You mustn't hate the man who have done this to us. For some of us murdered are men. We have become too dangerous and too threatening for this world. When we meet again, it will be in a better place._

_As I write you the men bang on the door. Arthur growling out at me, it isn't his fault Amelia. He doesn't know what he is doing, he his blinded by his master. This devilish act will happen within the week. I will leave this letter hidden for you. Somehow maybe your mortal soul will float down from the heavens to hear my good-bye. I love you greatly Amelia._

_I will join you soon._

_Love,_

_Alice Kirkland_

Amelia had been sitting in a prison cell for the longest time. Hearing the fluid Spanish of her guards. She was weak, they made sure that they kept her drugged and ready to do as they pleased. She had seen Ivan and Anya, they came and had been flattered they caught her, she was in apparent war of intellect with them and they loved coming down and torturing her.

She had at least three teeth ripped out, her fingernails were just beginning to grow back. Unlike a mortal her body would do desperately anything to heal itself. It would regenerate bone and flesh to make her continue to live. They were awful to her, her mouth was raw from its gentle virgin throat being violated too many times.

All she could taste was blood guts and gore. It hurt badly everything really hurt badly. She was always so drugged up by the Cubans and the Russians, she could hardly stand to walk somewhere. Her world was always topsy and turvy. She definitely couldn't defend herself.

She liked the female voice that would always whisper Spanish to her. She was very saddened when that voice just one day stopped coming to her. She should have known something was wrong when two guard looking American men came and grabbed her arms. They dragged her up.

One was a blond fellow. His muscles were just simply popping from his shirt. The other was a shorter black man that seemed regretful for pulling the drugged girl out of her chamber. She could hardly stand. She didn't know _why_? She was too tired to resist though the opioids in her system made her really actually pretty exhausted. They dragged her away. She just let herself be dragged away.

She was pretty lucid a time later. When she woke she was in a white room. It was a snug room, a door with no handle, and her per pushed against one wall. She looked around seeing another with a frame sleeping in it. She must have been placed here. It was very dark and she could hardly see her own limbs let alone who was in the other bed. She felt a chill run down her spine as this reminded her of a sterilized hospital. She sighed and then began to try and sit up.

Each of her muscles protested the movement as did loudly the spring underneath the thin mattress that she was sleeping on. She was dressed in a hospital gown and was paler than could be imagined. Her world was a bit dizzy for a moment until she gained her head. She slowly slipped out of bed. When he feet hit the floor she was questioning whether this was a good idea or not.

She didn't feel anything below the gown and supposed that if she fell her bottom would be exposed to the rest of the world. There was only one other person in this room, but what did it matter. She wasn't in the mood to show everyone her tush.

She was curious though who the other sleeping person was in the other corner of the snug room. She pushed herself up onto her feet then had to put most of her weight on the wall due to the fact she was much too weak to stand on her own. She slowly wandered to the other cot.

It was to her surprise that she saw blond hair. She was reminded of Alice and felt her heart fill with glee. She collapsed on the side of the bed. Not hoping to wake the Brit. She slowly got under the covers and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl's waist. She had missed her so.

It felt right, her laying there with her love. Alice didn't wake to be honest, but she seemed more comfortable too. Her body let out a soft sigh as she reacted subconsciously. Her body relaxed as if it had been tense for weeks upon weeks.

Amelia was happy right there, snuggling without the other knowing. Sure it seemed creepy but it honestly felt right.

When Alice awoke she moderately began to try and get herself up. It was the start of her last day. Somehow a German scientist had figured how to take her soul, as well as all the others, without causing detriment to the country. It was a curious thing it was. They found themselves treated by these few that possessed the power to destroy them. So they decided that the more powerful of each pair be killed.

Alice began to get up but there was something attached to her. She turned quickly not sure if it was a threat or not. She saw the most beautiful gift she had seen in a long time. She bent and hugged the American back. She didn't know if this was a dream or if it was real life. She just wanted to spend every moment she could.

Amelia gently stirred seeming to wake,"Alice?" She questioned,"I missed you…" She seemed to say bashfully. Alice's eyes downcast after the initial meeting. They were both going to die…

She looked at the American. _I can let this happen...I just can't. I lost her once. I cannot lose her a second time. She will be saved._

Alice looked at the American and smiled softly. "Hello love. How is the weather outside?" Amelia was shivering and just hugged her tighter. "Alice I missed you so bad! Oh my! It was awful! I was locked up! They kept drugging me! It was terrible!" She sniffled and looked up. Her childishness made her comfort force her to cry.

Alice stroked her hair. "Shhh love, it is all alright now. We get to spend… our last day together."

Alice frowned at her own statement. "I might be able to do something…." She said softly. "We can escape this Amelia…" She slowly stood. Her nightgown was entirely too big. She smiled softly and then leant down and kissed the other female softly on the cheeks. She had been waiting to do that for so long. She just didn't imagine that it would actually happen.

Amelia looked up at her with those innocent blue orbs that made Alice absolutely melt. Alice saw her as a blur though. She moved and reached her hand under the bed and grabbed a pair of her glasses. "Do you still have those hair clips you always wear?" She then studied now Amelia's more defined face, the younger girl took off her two star hair clips. She handed them to Alice.

Alice got up from the bed, bare feet slapping the linoleum. She was breathing a bit nervously. She knew that she would have to save the American that she loved even if it killed her. She slowly walked to the door. It was locked from the outside. Alice slowly slipped the hair clips in the lock thinking intently until there was some sort of popping noise.

Alice smiled with her crooked teeth to the bigger girl. "Got it. Now we just have to find an exit." She handed Amelia back her hair clips, which had been slightly dented in the process. Amelia didn't seem to care. She just stared intently at her former caretaker.

Alice felt her blood rush to her cheeks in a bout of nervousness. She almost silently opened the door. She peeked a look out into the whitewash hall. Her eyes were studying and serious. There were no guards stationed outside the doors. Most of the captivated countries had given up. Plus they were all in different wings for ultimate safety.

Alice looked back,"Alice can't we save everyone?" She heard a whisper come from the other girl's lips. "If the possibility arises Amelia. Don't worry. Even if we can't we'll do the best that we can to help them…" She knew she wasn't going to be able to come back for everyone; but telling Amelia they might would definitely calm the other down and assure her full confidence.

She knew Amelia, and she knew just how to trick her. Even though it was rude and awful, she had to get Amelia out of there.

She slowly stepped out of the room with Amelia in tow. She felt a warmish hand grab her own, she felt her adrenaline kick in with her certain skills and the two girls were silent as the walked down the hall. They were looking about. There was one stationary camera in the hall.

As long as the two hugged the wall they should be fine to appear not on the film.

Alice breathed out and looked over her shoulder,"Stay close and do exactly what I tell you. Think of me as your CO for the moment." She threw in one of the American military words she had learnt from her time in World War Two with Alfred.

She slowly looked around and saw some sort of janitorial closet. She quickly dragged Amelia into it and breathed out. Moving around a couple of cans of bleach and a mop bucket she closed her eyes. "Don't be stranged by what I am about to do." She said. She looked around for something sharp.

She found some sort of blade and drug it across both of her thumbs. She then bent down on her knees and began to draw a pentagram in her blood. Amelia looked down,"Ew Grosssssss," She giggled and then looked down at the Brit. "Anything that I can do to help?" Alice shook her head,"I'll have you join me in a chant soon. I taught it to you when you were little. She stood before looking down at what she had created.

There was a sudden noise and it was foot steps. Alice felt ice cold panic run down her veins. It was time for them to come and get the girls for breakfast. She felt her heart beating as she pulled Amelia into the middle of the pentagram. She held her tightly and kissed her hard.

The American's cheeks lit up in a blush but she didn't pull back away from the other girl. Alice then pulled away and began to chant softly. She saw Amelia blink and then slowly begin to join in. Her eyes glowed out into the American's and she felt her hair begin to whip around. She then heard a bang on the door. "I know you're in there!" She heard.

Alice felt tears fill her eyes. She was sending Amelia to another demension. It was all she could do. An alternate one to their own. She knew that the girl would be safer there. She felt the spell finish before a portal appeared. She looked at Amelia. She smiled,"I'll come after you. I must keep the spell up.

Amelia looked nervous,"Okay be quick. We can't separate-" She was cut off by the door being kicked in. Alice sadly looked at the other girl,"Forgive me…." She whispered before she drew back and shoved the other into the portal. Amelia screamed out the other girls name but Alice knew what she had to do. Tears pouring down her cheeks she smiled. She looked away quickly and heard Amelia call her as she closed the portal. She had done what she needed to do. She felt herself grabbed and smashed into the floor.

She felt herself smile through the pain of them smashing her down.

_I saved her…_

*********

 

Arthur felt himself slowly in a world of less confusion than his own blurry vision. He got up from the ground he seemed to be laying on. His cheeks were cold from what seemed like linoleum. He felt a gentle breeze travel from his hair as he tried to get himself up. His body ached all over.

_Bloody...Hell…_ His mind mumbled through his stupor. He was ontop of some sort of building, something compelled him to walk toward the ledge. He wasn't sure what it was, but he looked up at the sky soon bracing himself on the ledge of the tall building. He soon felt his legs compelled to stand on the end of the world. It was such a long way down.

His heart beat rapidly, he turned away from the ledge and blinked a few times. His vision focused on the rest of the platform. He felt his eyes narrow and he breathed out.

"Arthur! What are you doing?!" He heard. He stared blankly into the blue eyes he soon saw. "They say…if you fall in a dream...and hit the ground before you wake...You will die," Arthur felt his voice not his own as he looked back at the American. "It is better this way Alfred... " England looked back over his shoulder to the distant world below him.

"Iggy… Don't…"

Arthur looked at the other, he felt not like himself. He turned his back to Alfred,"This is just a dream Alfred. We are not real, I do not exist anymore in your world," he paused,"Maybe we'll meet again in this dream field."

He heard Alfred's feet lunge forward to grab him as he stepped off the platform. It was funny, he didn't feel like he was falling from the sky, he was just enveloped by black. His world was black, like he was being drowned in water. He just sunk lower and lower. This seemed to go on for hours before he finally let his eyes close. He was nothing, not anymore.

Gil woke after a night of vigorous exercise. His lips curled into a ruby red smile as he began to recall.

_Gil pinned the younger man to the ground, kissing him with all of the fire in his dead eyes. He felt his heart beating quickly against the other as he kissed, he wasn't delicate, he was far from it. He was rough but with each stroke of the others length it showed passion. Not necessarily love, not yet that was._

_He almost stripped the other nude in a flash. Ripping the clothes off with skill and with stealth. He saw the American suprised at the old Prussian's experience. Who knew an albino would get so much sex. He of course thought that he was god's gift to humanity, but that wasn't exactly shared with any other person._

_The other had been pressed into the bed, smothering him with kisses and with joy. He wasn't sure why he was so heavily attracted to doing this. It seemed a little bizarre for him, he hadn't done this in the longest time._

_He saw the other's glasses slipping down from his nose. He chuckled and took them off the other just so they wouldn't get in the way of what he wanted to do. He craned his body over the other and fully began to nip at his neck. He heard sounds of pleasure coming from the larger blond._

_Prussia was just too loud not to be dominate to any other sort of person or country for that matter. He felt the physical response begin to rise in the American. He felt his fingers trail down the other's entrance. He felt a shudder from the American as he rubbed his body on the other's._

_He roughly jammed one finger in getting a groan of pleasure. He slowly began to move his finger around getting a squirm from the others body. He heard a whine as the other began to crane his back, obviously he was not used to being on the bottom._

_Gilbert then tagged another finger in kissing the other madly, his dark red eyes closed and his body sweat, like a veil around him, his body glowed in pale comparison to the others golden sunkissed tan._

_He quickly pulled his fingers out and pressed the others legs forward-_

Gilbert was suddenly brought out of his thoughts by a panting sound. He looked next to him in the soft posh bed of the hotel. He saw the sweaty composure of the other's body. His brows were furrowed in a scowl. His eyes were closed, but they danced beneath their lids.

GIl reached out a hand and slowly began to shake the others body,"Hey...Barchen?" He asked briefly, he felt something shudder through his bones. He got a glimpse of a building and a person turning and falling. It happened so quickly he yanked his hand back.

"What the fuck?!" He exclaimed trying to find another way to wake his little bear.

He stood stark naked and then sighed, maybe the other would wake on his own and he would no longer have to deal with this minor problem. He decided to take a shower, Alfred was a strong man, he would probably be up before Prussia had to suffer another dose of shock therapy from trying to wake the other man.

He walked off to his joint shower that came with the unit of the home. He breathed out and looked away, from the American to the mirror in front of him. He wasn't as handsome as he believed, but he sure as hell was pale. He smiled in the mirror and looked at the angry reflection that looked back at him. Scowling and glaring like usual, he didn't mean to do that; he just seemed to look angry all the time. Those glaring red eyes always were looking back at him. He hated it.

He frowned and just turned the shower on in his room. He didn't bother to close the bathroom door, _How much more disturbed could someone get after already seeing you naked?_ He pondered before sighing softly. He slowly bathed himself in the warm water shooting out of the spicket. It was nice and calming. He sighed, it didn't get better than this.

Erika sighed as she began to walk outside into the warm weather. It felt like it was going to be a good day, the sun was shining, she was going to meet her big brother above the American Base they were staying at for the time.

Life seemed good, _I hope brother likes the little cakes I made…_ She thought innocently, she had that sort of childish glint in her eyes that shone how hopeful and loving she was. She was very excited to go on a picnic. They had been underground for so long and it was starting to get boring. There was no grass to lay in, nothing to brighten her day more so.

She walked into the small forest looking area looking down at her note,

_Meet me in the small clearing in the forest_

_-Vash_

She hummed to herself happily as she skipped with her picnic basket. She had made small cucumber sandwiches for the two of them to share, also she carried a small thermos of warm milky tea.

She sighed contently navigating her way through the foliage. It didn't take her long to get out of the bunker's area and into the darkened forest. It was enchanted by sunlight and the sounds of frogs singing, crickets chirped in their exits. It was so peaceful.

"Vash? Are you here big brother?" She asked.

She felt some sort of noise creep up behind her and turned to see a shadow approaching,'Brother? Is that you?" She said with a sparkling smile.

She saw the shadow shudder and then collapse,"Lichtenstein…. _Lauf…_ " He warned. She of course did nothing of the sorts, she rushed toward her beaten brother. "Brother!" She exclaimed trying to help him up as he resisted. "I cannot… Let you…" Something jumped out of the bush and Erika felt herself thrown back with a force that she didn't know Vash had.

She hit something behind her and she whined softly having hit her head on whatever this firm structure.

"Brother…!" She called weakly, she blinked and saw everything had a green tint to it. She stumbled up looking at the person holding Vash by his neck. He was dangling, looking like he had stopped struggling. "Brother…." She whined feeling the dizzy tears fall from her eyes.

He was thrown to the ground like garbage and she stumbled to him. Her head was spinning in all sorts of directions. He seemed to still be breathing,"Erika…." He choked out with a large clot of blood. "You are stronger than you think….Please….Find the strength...Avenge...me," She saw his eyes begin to lose color. They were getting glassy. She screamed loudly,"Brother!"

His chest stopped rising and falling and just remained still. "Vash! Wake up!" She sobbed holding his body close, blood smeared on her cheeks and her hands. Tears mingled with the dead blood of the victim. She felt something yank her away from her dead brother.

"Stop let me go!" She screamed desperately. She felt her eyes flash and her arms flail. She couldn't focus it was no use, she couldn't get the big lug off of her. She continued to scream before she felt the presence drop her. There was a light that was so bright it forced her eyes to close. She gasped hitting the ground hard and then beginning to close her eyes. Her last image before she blacked out, was Vash, tangled and messy. His limbs were distorted and pale. His lips were slowly turning blue, he saved her…. all those years ago… it was shameful she could not repay the favor.

She slowly let the blackness envelop her, hearing feet thundering in the background.


	10. Chapter 10

lfred seemed to wake slowly and then all at once. His crystal, blue eyes shocked themselves open quickly as he desperately took in air. His lungs filled and then deflated rapidly. His eyes scanned the darkened room, the faint tang of metal came from the back of his throat.

He felt different, very different…

He slowly felt up and down his body, _Is this real life…?_ His mind asked absently, he struggled to get himself up, he heard water running in the distance, it was like something has snapped in his mind, he struggled to get himself up and around.

His blurry eyes scanned the area, _E...England? Where is he…? Where am I…?_ His head began to get dizzy and light, he stumbled catching himself on the wall absently. He heard footsteps close in behind him. That made him a little nervous,"Alfred…" The pronunciation of his name decided to disclude the r, it sounded like someone was saying it with a mouth full of marbles. Al-fed? Who was that?

Alfred felt something soft touch him in the back. His eyes flashed and he looked back, this abnormal feeling had him so detached. Suddenly there was screaming, "America! America! We need you!" He felt his vision snap as he looked into the icy gaze of a Dane.

Suddenly the world began to fall in place. He was in the hall, there was a warm presence on his hand, it gave a squeezing assurance. He didn't dare to look over and see who his new companion was. He looked down at himself, what he was wearing almost made him falter. He was wearing a red _Deadpool_ t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a flannel shirt. _Just like Mattie…_

His attention was snapped back into control by the Dane's urgent voice. Matthias looked at him dead in the eyes,"There has been another death." The words echoed around in his mind for a moment. "Of whom?" He heard the soury voice from next to him and looked at a long forgotten nation.

Gilbert's red eyes seemed to look with urgency.

Alfred could not focus, he wanted to run, he knew everyone looked to him for help.

"America… Are you on drugs?" He heard and shook his head bravely. He felt the warm presence in his hand leave as he looked at the Nordic nation. "Who is it?" He asked in a low gravely voice. "Vash… We are having a hard time getting contact with Erika… She speaks… but her voice is dull… it is haunting...we thought since…"

His eyes suddenly turned sour,"Because my brother is dead too? I could empathize?" He said in a louder angry voice. "We will go see what we can do…" He heard a firm voice from next to him. Alfred stood there glaring at the Dane. Matthias had sympathy in his eyes but he didn't back down. "Good." He said sternly.

Alfred felt his dizzy vision fading in and out. He heard screaming, it was hard to tell whether it was in his head or not. It would suddenly amp up, then fizzle down. "I don't think I can do this…" Alfred whispered half to himself. "You will be fine _maus_ , just talk to her… we will figure what to do with this dizzy head later."

Alfred could hardly process the trip to the elevator. Once they were beginning to move up floors, he felt his breath begin to hitch up. He suddenly felt images running through his eyes. He backed off until he hit the wall.

He felt the unfamiliar tang of fear in his heart. He suddenly could not breathe, _I have to get out of here…_ He gasped and felt his fists swing as this magnificently, blurry world. He heard the sound of contact, but he was unsure of who he was hitting. Yelling and eventually he was pushed down on the ground. His eyes gave an unfamiliar flicker. He blinked feeling something swell into his eyes.

It hurt! It hurt so badly! He hadn't felt pain in so long. it was almost flabbergasting how much it hurt, he felt the burning around and in his eyes. He couldn't scream, he felt his body slowly giving up to whatever evil force this was.

He felt his world beginning to fade.

"Da comrade.. You are here too?"

He felt his body suddenly aware of his body.

"What? Where am I? Did you do this you commie piece of shit!" He felt his legs moving toward the voice.

"No America, I am trapped here as well."

Trapped? What could that mean? He wasn't trapped everywhere. "This is all at the hands of the femme fatal of this story." Alfred looked down at himself, he was wearing the same clothes that he had before his mind had gone bezerk.

"Ivan please come out of the darkness and talk to me. I am so fucking confused…" He said half- deflated. "I cannot friend. I am just a voice in your mind, the only way we can communicate is through voice." The dark room began to get darker.

"Ivan where are we?"

"Hell."

Toris was struggling to accept all of this, the madness of the entire situation. His brown hair always woke in an impatient tuff on his head. Each morning he would struggle to get it straightened and down. On the rare occasions that he slept.

He was not too worried, America usually butted his button nose in the world's problems so that was most likely the plan in this situation.

"Lithuania…" He heard. He walked around his bunker. They were underground, there were few places to hide. How could someone make themselves unknown in a place like this.

"Come closer…" He began to cautiously put one foot in front of the other. His eyes scanned the room for an understanding of this eerie voice. He looked to his bed and saw a flicker in reality. "Oh my goodness!" He gasped, was he losing his mind? He slowly watched as the formation of a person began to appear on his bed. It was Ivan? How could it be Ivan of all people. He was missing.

He felt his heart rocket in his chest. "W-What? How…?" Feeling his fingers shake in fear at the eerie green eyes that plagued the usual violet orbs. "I have come back Da."

With that Torris screamed!

Erika sat in the infirmary bed shaking nervously. Everything was so blurry from fear, _Vash? Where is Vash? Where is this?_ Her fingers shook and she felt the back of her head. The lump from the back radiated pain through her head.

She whined softly as she heard the door open. She watched as a big man who was half-conscious and mumbling something. His knuckles were red and raw. She recognized him as America a few moments later. His cheek looked like it had been skinned on the rug. His eyes were closed but his lips kept moving.

She felt a shiver going down her spine seeing the bruised men who brought her in. The albino that her brother always said was trouble looked angry, he had a deep purplish bruise circling his eye. His nose was bloodied too, blood ran down to his pink palish lips. He looked a little dizzy but he was able to help the American in the room. He was laid down on the bed next to her.

Gilbert looked at her for a brief second. It was a limited time of contact, it suddenly looked like he shift to angry. His fist rocketed into some sort of metal contraption. It made a dent. He looked angry.

Erika jumped back into her bed. She felt her lips quiver at the loud noise. She missed her brother, she still saw his tangled body every time she closed her eyes. Blood was everywhere his eyes were glassy and dead.

She put her hands up to her ears and felt more tears falling down her cheeks.

"Brother….Brother...Where are you now…?" She whimpered. She never knew the pain of losing someone to death. She had never wanted to feel this, she did not want to be sad all the time. She shivered and settled back down into bed. Maybe sleep would bring comfort. She laid on her back and pulled the covers up to her neck. She sniffled softly and closed her eyes, wishing for sleep.

But sleep would not come.

Francis felt like there was a frog in his throat. Ironically it was caused by one of the only people that called him a frog. He could hardly talk around the swollen part of his neck. He was sitting, enjoying a cup of coffee with his absent-minded version of Arthur.

Arthur seemed to be struggling to get the tea cup gracefully up to his lips. He sloshed the tea around and it ended up spilling on his lap. Arthur cried out when it touched the tender part of his body. He slowly grasped at it, Francis jumped up and ran over to the littler man.

He sniffled looking like a child and with those unnatural eyes. His caterpillar like brows furrowed and he looked down at the giant wet spot the hot tea had made. He was uncertain of what to do.

Francis knew exactly what to do. He slowly got up and walked to the kitchens sink. He grabbed a couple of towels and covered them in cold water. Arthur squeaked in the background behind him, as to complain of his singed crotch.

Francis smiled softly and put a finger to his hushed lips. "Ah...Ah...Ah…" He whispered hoarsely,"Francis will fix…" He whispered softly slowly unbuckling the others pants. Arthur looked dull and confused.

He slowly slid the others pants down and picked up a cloth from the table. He slowly slid the others undergarments down and placed a gentle cloth on the others burnt member. Arthur cried out at first but then he slowly quieted down. His cheeks turned red, he reached out grabbing onto Franics' shirt and pulling him closer.

He burrowed his cheek into the frenchman's neck. "M-M-Mhm…" He mumbled. Francis almost blushed, that wasn't what he wanted to do at all. His eyes looked down at the unnatural eyes of the stubborn country.

His lips lingered softly toward the other. "K-Kiss…" He whispered softly to the other blond. Francis felt himself look up and then down. His eyes closed briefly as he moved his hand from down to up caressing the others cheek.

Francis slowly kissed the Brit.

It was special, his eyes looked into those of the other and they didn't seem so deep and dark anymore. They almost looked... human. Arthur soon broke away and looked down. Francis immediately stood up and looked at the window. Almost angry with himself, how could he let himself be so manipulated by this toy of a friend.

He felt a hot tear fall down his cheek. It hurt, he was falling in love all over again, with someone who was a mannequin, someone who was incapable of loving him back. It was like he was falling in love with a sex doll.

He slowly felt his hands turn into fists. That was it! That was the last straw! This life was not real! If he could not find a way to protect Arthur from this girl. He might as well save the rest of them. Feelings of triumph rocketed in his chest as he looked into those empty eyes of the man he loved.

Arthur was clueless.

Francis turned around and walked off without a word. He was going to stop this crazed woman. He was going to get his Arthur back! He was going to save all of them.

Even if it killed him.

A sudden pain in his chest caused him to deflate.

He sunk to the floor looking up at the sky. He was getting attacked, he hadn't felt this pain since the Second World War. It hurt, oh how it hurt! He felt a presence at his side suddenly grabbing onto his arm. It was like Arthur didn't know what to do, clumsy like a child he stroked the Frenchman's hair as if trying to provide some sort of comfort.

Francis laughed to himself.

Maybe this was his Arthur...

 

****************

 

When Alfred opened his eyes everything was different. "Where am I?" He questioned with a numb knowledge of the world around him. "Hello?" He echoed to the black world around him. He heard footsteps and felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hello brother." He turned rapidly to face a short woman with a bobbed haircut. Her hair was a bit wavy, her eyes were so familiar he eventually recognized them as his own. He was looking at the female reflection of himself. Her breasts spilled out from her shirt, her clothes were skimpy at most. Looking like the failed form of a cheerleaders outfit. It was dark around the edges of her body highlighting her feminine curves.

"Thank you for finally letting me in Alfred. You have no idea how long I have been trying to use you as a drone. You can come with me and join my elite force. It is just you and I here in your mind."

"Who are you?" Alfred's tongue felt so strange speaking the words, he felt like he knew who she was. "I am going to take you with me… You will eventually remember who I am. I am you. Amelia. America." She went on through perfectly iced lips. Her eyes were intense and angry.

"Come and embrace me Alfred." She said holding out her arms. Her eyes were gentle and soft now, they communicated a compulsion for Alfred to do what she wanted. "All I ever wanted was your love," she said softly. He felt her arms slowly secure around him. He felt like everything began to fade. There was a faint pain in his eyes, easily ignored, easily distracted he felt himself reflect in her. His head rested on her shoulder, he felt soft, unafraid, he felt home.

He began to slowly nuzzle her neck breathing in her sweet perfume. It was comfortable, he didn't want to leave this embrace. His throat was suddenly unable to make sound. He was trapped in this embrace that he never wanted to leave. He could feel her rocking him softly, like someone would to calm a child.

"You can stay with me forever Alfred. Just let me cast a spell on you…"

Alfred wanted to stay forever, this was comfortable, this felt right.

He closed his eyes and felt his body go into some sort of total submission.

He was ready.

Gil paced around outside of the infirmary. He was unsure of how to calm himself down, he heard a loud noise coming from inside the doors and frowned. Most likely Alfred had woken up, this was a curious time for him.

He wanted to know what was wrong with the American, but wanted to stay away from the chaos.

He heard a noise behind him and frowned.

"Bruder! What is the meaning of all of this!"

Gil shrugged,"Alfred flipped his tit brother, He hit a couple of people, myself including, I guess being down here in the bunker does not help. Enough to drive any man mad."

"He is one of the powers of the world, how could he lose his mind so easily. I am taking over control for him. I am beginning to be the last country that is entitled. We need to all have a meeting over what should be done." Gilbert frowned then nodded,"I need to go and talk to him, maybe I can talk some of the sense into him."

Ludwig shook his head,"No you should not. We need to chain him to the bed. If he really is mad, he will jeopardize the entire hiding spot of our people."

There was a loud noise sounding like someone falling down the stairs. "AHHHHHHH." As two people tumbled down the stairs there was a deep sigh of irritation from both of the German brothers. "FELICIANO. Watch where the fuck you are going! You stupid fuck! Why does my brother have to be a Northerner!? All Northerners do is fuck shit up…" The entire conversation trailed off into a bunch of cursing in Italian.

"Ow…" He heard from the younger of the two. "Come on _fratello_!"

"Feli? Is there something that you need from me?" Ludwig looked down at the the two in the heap of Italian."WE HAVE A PROBLEM LUDDY!"

Ludwig slowly massaged his temples trying to keep his temper under control. Gil could tell, he sighed and then began to walk out of the hallway into the infirmary where the whole situation was going on.

Might as well while his brother was distracted. He wanted to see his lover before the entire situation got turned upside down. He saw a couple of beds down a little girl sleeping with a couple of bruises on her face. He felt pity for the little soul. She had lost her brother and seemed to lose her way.

He felt his eyes slowly fall on Alfred. His fingers trailed along the side of the bed. Alfred was sitting up with his eyes closed. His large hands were folded in his lap and he sat with his legs crossed. "Alfred… _mein maus_?" He asked softly trying to figure out what he was going to do.

Alfred began to lean forward and lean backward. It was like some unknown force was compelling him to move without his own will. Gil began to back up and his eyes scanned the area. The only other person in here was Lichtenstein, he had an honest bad feeling about this. He walked over to her bed and slowly shook her shoulder. "Little one. Wake up there is danger."

Her eyes opened, but they were dull, she didn't seem to care. "What do you mean Mr. Prussia?" He slowly breathed out before disconnecting some of the IVs from her arms. He slowly shook his head. "Something is not right in here, that is why you need to get out." He said slowly scooping the small girl out of her bed.

He heard noise from behind him. "I need you to put down that girl." He heard from behind him,"She is the property of Amelia Jones as of now. This world does terrible things to girls. She would like to protect the innocence of this girl."

Gil chuckled and slowly looked at Erika,"Run when I tell you." She seemed fearful, but understanding.

"Alfred, what are you talking about," He said setting the girl on the bed and turning toward the empty vessel of the man who he cared for. "What has happened to your eyes…?" He said in honest awe. His iris had expanded engulfing the pupil and the whites of his eyes. He looked like an angry angel of vengeance.

"I am a vessel of my own will."

"What does that mean..?" Gil was trying to keep calm and god knows he didn't want to hurt the younger country; desperate times called for desperate measures. He slowly breathed out and closed his eyes. "Run Erika!" He screamed before running at Alfred and tackling him to the ground. He heard her footsteps innocently running and felt himself tossed into the wall.

He groaned softly trying to brace himself against the wall. His eyes felt his head jerked back into the wall. He stumbled back up trying to give Erika enough time to get out of the room. He heard a lot of crashing noises but was getting a little dizzy. He stumbled around before getting socked in the face again. He tried to block against it, but it was like trying to fight someone hyped up on drugs as a human.

Gilbert was a lot weaker than he had let on. He lost his status as a kingdom/country, making him as frail and weak as the humans he used to rule over. He felt someone pull him back,"Bruder can you hear me?" The english just bounced off his head and he closed his eyes groaning.

"I think I can be of some assistance comrade!"

Gil looked up at his old enemy, silver blond hair and a pipe in his hand. Though it was summer time he wore a scarf. His eyes were a freak kind too. The iris had taken over them, he looked like a god. Gil felt all of this drama swelling around him. He could not take this anymore.

He was enveloped by the black.

Toris was chasing after the Russian. Knowing how much they feared England, for this strange magical power he was reported to have, and the girl spilling all of this terror around. He felt his brown hair flying back with the wind as he ran toward where Ivan disappeared to.

"Mr. Ivan!" He cried mentally shaking his head to try and knock off the pleasantries. He was his own country now, how could he forget that so frequently. He gasped softly and then took a break from running breathing out and in trying to calm his fiery lungs down.

He heard some glass smashing around in the downstairs part of the bunker. "Oh no! Mr. Russia must be in some of the trouble!" He ran to the stairs and thundered down the stairs trying to keep his cool, it was in his nature to panic.

He ran to where the infirmary happened to be. It was a mess there, there was a few people in the hallway. They all looked like they were panicking. There was one guy on the floor that he recognized as the old country of Prussia. He looked awful there was blood around his nose and his mouth and his lips. One of his arms look twisted in a way that wasn't good.

"Oh my god! Wake up Gil! Someone go get China! He is a medicinal person!" He recognized some of the more western countries as the Italians and a German. Ludwig's eyes seemed focused on trying to help his brother drift back into consciousness.

They saw him, but they did not seem to care much of his presence.

He heard a crash in the room over and without a word threw the door open. "Mr. Russia!" He called walking in before a person was slammed into the wall next to him. He screamed looking over to see one of the other strongest nation he knew. They were frightening, the two of them had haunting eyes that were so abnormal and godly. They seemed to almost even float above the ground as they fought.

America pulled himself off of the wall and seemed not to even notice the Lithuanian man. "You may be pulled to the darker side America, but I have been trained on this power. I am stronger than you naive child!" Ivan hissed.

Ivan saw that Toris was there and his eyes narrowed. He seemed angry that he had been followed. That moment of distraction was just enough for his body to be rocketed into the wall. His head slammed against the wall.

Toris heard a shivering sob in the corner of the room. He slowly began to walk over as the two superiors fought in the distance. "Lichtenstein? What are you doing in here?" He asked hearing a noise in the background and jumping. "Ah! We better get out of here before Mr. Russia kills us both." He said before hearing his old captors laugh. "I will kill you America."

There was another loud laugh and it was the former hero's laugh off to the side of his ear. "Oh we are planning our final strike and will be killing you soon."

Toris grabbed Erika's hand and ran toward the doors. They needed to get out of there as quickly as they could. He heard a loud noise behind them sounding like an explosion. He covered Erika with his body feeling the two of them blown through the doors. He tried to stand up but his weak body rejected the movement. He breathed in and out now in the hallway.

Francis felt sick, his entire body felt like it was going to vomit. He trembled in the fingers and sighed softly, today was the day. Today was the day that they were killing their friends. Arthur didn't know it. He didn't seem to know anything, all he knew was to kill.

Francis was dressed in what he thought was assassin's garb. He wore black pants, and a collared red shirt with a bullet proof vest over it. It was not likely that he would get hit. Amelia had explained it all to him:

" _Arthur will meet up with Alfred, and some of the others that are under control. Just to assure that you are not able to warn your 'friends' you will be with me the entire time. You can scream all you want, we will be overlooking the entire scene from my battleship. If you try to do anything, I will kill your entire sort of family, like you would even care," She flipped her hair obnoxiously and then smiled widely._

" _Would you like to know why I am doing this?" She asked._

_Francis looked up from his shoes and frowned,"Oui…"_

" _You may not believe this now," She gazed softly out the window,"but in another place or time, you took away my family. The people I loved. The...woman I loved." Her gaze shift back to him,"You killed all of us that had some sort of hypnotic magic that you all and your bosses feared having too much power in one place. So they killed half of us. They killed them, and they wanted to kill me, but I escaped because the woman I cared for was so caring. She saved me."_

_Her eyes glared at him,"Now you all deserve to die…" She sighed and seemed to relax herself. "You are my hostage for the moment. Haha well in a way." She smiled at him, a heinous evil kind of smile._

Francis frowned, It was going to be a miserable night


	11. Chapter 11

Alfred had some sort of sensing and some sort of pull that caused him to be villainous. He felt something inside of him that made him feel pretty evil. For some reason he was okay with it. Even with bleeding and bruises clouding his vision he was laughing happily.

He liked the sorts of rough stuff. His eyes sparkled as he spit out some blood. His chest was heaving as he looked at the Russian in the eyes. He smile was deadly. Ivan finally seemed to be on the right side.

"I have no idea how you are not like me Ivan. You should just help me kill-." He was cut off by a rocketed punch to the stomach. He was slammed into the wall as he laughed coughing up toughs of blood. Ivan was pinning him to the wall. He felt something in him growl and heave. He wanted everyone dead.

"I'll kill you all! I will kill you!" He screamed before he felt something pinch him in the back of the neck. His eyes were slowly closing with a freezing heavy thunk. He felt himself groan subconsciously as he heard his bones snapping back into their proper places. His vision was getting foggy and soon was about to fade out.

He heard people scuffle around him and his heavy feeling body dragged into a sitting position. Everything was so painful, he felt mortal though just for a moment. He was so confused. Amelia was passing through his mind.

Her certain identification was puzzling to him, the villain in him was angry that he had been defeated. But the hero was not. The hero let himself be subject to the terrors of others for the good of the world. He felt himself aching and groaning.

When his eyes opened again he was no longer in the bunker. He was sitting on a cloud in the sky. "W-What…?" He mumbled softly feeling something brought to his lips. He slowly parted them and closed his foggy eyes.

"Swallow love…" He heard in the back of his ear. He felt himself automatically relax at the noise in the back of his head. "England… I missed you…" He whispered as the sound evaded his ears for a moment. He felt a cloth dabbing all of his wounds. "I was hoping not to see you here…"

Alfred opened his eyes feeling his cheeks flush. He looked at Arthur,"What the fuck?" He cried out looking at the Englishman, he coughed gently into his arm looking down at his own barren body and felt automatically embarrassed.

He was almost fully naked. There was a cloth over his crotch but that was pretty much it. He felt himself look at the smaller nation. Arthur was clothed in a silk robe, he was pressed up close against Alfred in all of the wrong ways. Though it made Alfred feel right.

He watched his former caretaker slowly bathe his wounds without a word. "You know this place is a prison. We cannot escape… I am trapped here by her and now you are too." Alfred felt himself shuffle,"Where are my clothes?" Arthur nodded to somewhere else.

"Somewhere else, I just wanted to be able to heal up that monstrosity before you woke. Looks like my timing is all wrong." He looked down at a gaping wound in the American's stomach. Alfred looked down at his stomach. He felt the pain slowly begin to hit him. He felt a tear of pain cloud his vision. He felt like a little kid again.

He leant his head back and sniffled before covering his eyes with a bloodied hand. He didn't want to lose it right in front of the person he had to convince he was strong so long ago. He felt himself immediately coddled and pulled into a tender, pain filled embrace. His eyes couldn't help but to sweat out hot tears onto the older nations shoulder.

He felt Arthur shaking too.

"It's okay love…"

He kept crying, this all felt like a nightmare. He held onto the smaller frailer man like his life depended upon it. They just sat there rocking back and forth.

It was so surprising that something so inmortal could feel so human.

"I missed you too. You have to calm down, you are going to make yourself ill." Alfred couldn't calm down. He felt the consistent pain in his stomach dragging him away from Arthur."No!" Arthur's eyes told knowledge,"Maybe you aren't trapped after all…"

HIs words swirled around the American as Alfred shouted after him. He woke up in a haze, He was trying to stand up and go after the Englishman but he couldn't seem to sit up. "Arthur...I am coming...i am coming." He repeated over and over as something tried to calm him down. It was a hand, he couldn't even open his eyes but he was trying to get himself up.

"I'll help. I'll help." He repeated over and over.

He felt something shushing him. He felt like a little kid again, writhing below the covers.

It took him a while to be semi-lucid. "Arthur!" He was still screaming over and over. His voice was eventually raw and unforgiven. His eyes had opened and he realized that he was being restrained with some sort of belts on his arms. He felt himself whining pathetically trying to get free. It all hurt everything hurt all over. He was not used to being this weak.

He felt himself so tired of fighting whatever drug was in his system.

Gilbert was just waking from the whole affair that had knocked him unconscious. He looked down at himself pathetically laying in his bed with his arm bandaged and wrapped.

Gilbert's eyes were sore and exhausted. He felt like falling back asleep. Without his healing ability as a nation he was feeling pretty sore. He was having a hard time even getting up to take a piss. He heard the door thunder open and he shuttered.

"Prussia!"

He felt a girl run at him and slowly tackle him in a hug. " _Guten tag_ Liz." He said feeling her burly arms around him. He chuckled and then groaned,"I heard about the fight the first thing this morning. Are you alright?" she asked looking at him.

Feeling tired he sunk back. " _Gott_ I am not the man I used to be." She untangled herself from him and crossed her arms. "Don't start reminiscing! You are as strong as you were then. You just seem to forget it."  
Gil chuckled before sitting up and looking at her funny. He gave her a crooked smile,"Funny thing is...I really am not..." His eyes taunted her response, but before she dare answer he continued,"I think I have a feeling for someone younger than me. Much stronger. Much handsomer. Shallow isn't it... But I have become weaker. It is like my strength melted into what bruder became... I feel more human. More grounded." He spoke with a huff. As he let her fingers trail across his chest.

"A feeling? You are mad. You have never had feelings for anyone Gilbert. Only for yourself."

There was a pause of quiet as he seemed to agree with her. He looked into her eyes and then looked away feeling a forbidden moment of actual truth between the truth.

"It was not always just me." He said looking into her eyes.

Pulling back before something could happen that would add more drama to their current situation. He heard the door slam open again. It was his brother this time. He raised an eyebrow at the two as Gilbert scrambled into a walking position.

" _Ja_?" He asked.

"America is awake...but he seems a little...strange. Whatever we saw yesterday is gone but-." He was cut off by a loud scream.

"England!"

Gil jumped alert to them being under attack,"No. That was America. He doesn't seem to be in the right mind. I suppose the medication was too high. He's fading off of it but..." Lud shrugged seeming to not be too concerned. "I heard transmission that there have been few strikes on the land...I'm not sure what is going on but it seems a little malicious..."

There was another scream.

"Can I see the American?" Gil asked quietly.

"Are you sure?" His brother said in a low voice.

Gil nodded. He breathed out before looking away. Might as well see the damage.

****  
Francis was pacing. He had no idea what to make of things. He was no longer allowed to see Arthur.

He was having a video feed of the Englishman did little for his anxiety. He felt his heart pounding in his chest. He felt himself pacing around the empty place and felt helpless. His heart ached from the pain in his chest of watching someone go off to die.

He breathed in and out looking at the blank creature that was looking into the screen infront of him. He looked down at his fingers and slowly picked at the growing cuticles. He frowned looking around at the various cameras that Amelia had installed around his room.

He slowly looked down at his salmon shirt and frowned. The things that he did for love. He took off the shirt and slowly walked to the corner of the room free of the sight of the mechanical machines.

Already deciding upon what he was to do he tore a few lengths of fabric off of the shirt and pulled a chair to stand on. He slowly tied the shirt around the camera to make sure there was no possible way that could lead to the visualization of his next tactic.

Francis could careless about his own life. When it came down to war either you fought or you died trying. He slowly walked out of the room before looking around. He of course had no idea where he was if he even was able to escape the solitude of this building. He had an idea though.

Walking through the hallway he had been choked in before he was ready to find out ways to get out of this hell. He yanked on various door knobs getting nowhere in general. It seemed that she had kept everything locked tight.

_So much for that idea._

He slowly looked around before raising his foot to one of the oldish looking doorknobs. He then with all of his might kicked it. With a surprise it caved to his strength and he was introduced to a whole new world of technology.

Running inside to this giant computer he smiled. He could warn them,"Deus…" He felt a sudden pain in his chest making him weak at the core of his being. He whined softly before he slowly began to attempt to investigate the computor. Clicking away at the keys he was rapidly investigating the way that the keyboard.

He was breathing heavily as he opened up a window. It didn't take long for him to press a couple of buttons and be accessible to the internet. He felt himself click on _skype_. His head was pretty foggy and he felt like he was breathing in poison. He coughed loudly and put his hand to his mouth.

He drew his hand away hopefully getting saliva on it and well anything else. He groggily somehow signed in. Feeling worse for wear he rubbed the back of his neck. He felt something sticking out of the knot of his spine at the nape of his neck. He pulled it out and threw it lazily.

He pressed a button and watched as the phone dialed. "Hallo…?" He heard a lengthy gasp. "They...are coming…" He felt his English skills lacking at the moment. "You look awful! Where are you?"

"They are coming!" Francis gasped weakly. Germany seemed to understand better. "Thank you old friend… We will see if, we can find you…" His words paused awkwardly in Fran's mind.

The Frenchman stood and then began to walk out of the room. He heard a clicking sound of boots and felt his slow heart sky rocket so it was actual pain. He looked into the eyes of someone that he knew actually well.

"Matthieu!" He yelled stumbling toward his son. As he began to approach he saw a change in the eyes. The pupils bled out and he watched the Canadian's hand rise up and strike him. Sending him into blackness.

*****************

Alfred couldn't tell where exactly he was, but his head was pounding. He could not lift his arms from the sheets. They were tied up in place with metal handcuffs. Every time that he struggled the cuffs dug into his wrists making them bleed.

He was tired from all of the struggling. He looked absolutely awful, his left eye was hollowed with a black bruise around it. His lip was split and his body was bruised all over. He sighed softly and tried to open his mouth to scream again but he was so worn out it simply did not work. He felt his muscles strain against the handcuffs.

This had to be some pretty strong handcuffs if Alfred could not break them. His chest hurt in general, it felt like it was hard to breathe in and out. It felt like there was something in his system that he could not really shake. "America!" He heard and out of the corner of his eye he jolted up. "En...Oh Hi Prussia…" He said casually before coughing gently.

He tried to yank at his wrists. "We are under attack… They found us! France sent us a message…" Gilbert's words trailed off into nowhere as Alfred felt a ring go through his ears.

_Alfred… Come here.. We need…_

As soon as his hands were free he clutched them to his head trying to substitute the ringing in his ears for anything else. It took about ten minutes for it to go out. He didn't realize how close he had gotten to Gil. "Barchen…" He mumbled softly,"We need to fight," Alfred looked him in the eyes and then up and down,"What the fuck happened to you man… you look worse than I do!"

Gilbert hissed a chuckle and pulled Alfred from the bed. "We are all meeting upstairs on the roof. Get some clothes on and meet us up there… I should head out unless you want me to stay here…" Alfred's cheeks slowly heated.

"Uh…" He started before looking at his feet,"You can stay…"

He reached around the room for some clothes finding a pair of boxers to replace his scrubs. He saw Gilbert had turned around and faced the wall. He was dressed in battle gear, his pants were black along with his shirt and he was loaded with different sorts of weapons.

Alfred stared at him momentarily before slipping into a somewhat matching uniform that he hadn't noticed Gil brought in. He looked gross in general so he was happy to clothe himself after looking down at all of the scars from the past couple of hours.

"Don't talk too much when we get up there. I was not supposed to involve you in this battle, but we have absolutely no chance without your power…" Alfred sighed. "How did you get here so quickly?" "I was coming to see how you fared, but then we had received transmission that we were under attack…" He looked depressed for a short moment.

"What happened during that-." The bunker was shaken and Alfred saw Gil's instability and attempted to go and help him. He ended up just falling down, he was a strong nation, but a badly beaten country. The two of them fumbled as the tremor ended.

"This is not good!" Gil almost shouted darting up as quickly as he could. "I'll meet you up there! Go to the armory! Get what you need quick! It isn't too far from here." With that Prussia left him.

He slowly tugged himself up from the floor. He walked unsteadily from the room as the building shook again. He whined softly feeling his head pound. He slowly walked to a room that was almost barren from weapons, but there was enough for Alfred.

He picked up a couple of guns, ammo, and a couple of sharp daggars.

He felt her as a noise in his head. "Amelia… why do you have to do this..?" He whispered softly,"You are not from here… We didn't do this to you…" He whispered walking quickly hearing a scream in the background. He ran, they needed his help….

They needed a hero.

It seemed mere seconds until he was above the ground. He was facing off with a group of people fighting. He saw her, sitting up in a tree staring down as the world unfolded before her. There was a thick bubble of magic around her.

He smelled the nauseating smell of blood. His heart felt like it may beat out of his chest. He watched as Gilbert was aiming at her in the sky. He felt something in his chest twinge and whipped out his pistol. He heard the sounds of battle, as shadow looking figures fought the nations that he had grown up alongside.

"Alfred…" He heard a scratchy voice whisper. He turned around to look into the bled green eyes of his former caretaker. "What...Has...Happened to you….? _Love_." The sentence was followed by a sinister laugh as the dry and scratchy voice spoke to him.

Alfred felt his heart drop into his stomach. He couldn't hurt Arthur, could he? He shook his head,"England I know you are in there somewhere… You come to me in my dream-." He was cut off by a ball of magic flying for his chest. The shadows all seemed to laugh when Arthur smiled.

He felt his heart beat quickly. They needed to kill Amelia. Then all of this would be over, "Lud! Lovino!" He called backing up,"You need to kill her! The only way is to-!" He saw the two's heads snap in his direction.

The italian was yielding a large stick above his head attempting to beat off the shadow people. He saw Ludwig shooting at this giant shadow and backing up everytime that it reformed.

He saw the two of them nod.

Time began to slow.

He looked around him as Arthur began to walk closer to him. His hands were lowered into his pockets giving him a somewhat innocent look. Looking around for the other nations he heard screams. He watched as Finland was swallowed whole by a shadow, he gave an agonizing scream as the shadow seemed content.

Berwald screamed in terror and began to viciously beat the creature. Denmark and Norway were back to back fighting of a reign of the shadows surrounding them. He saw Elizabeta and Erika attempting to shoot off these sort of shadows.

His eyes shift to Feliciano fighting with Kiku to try and kill a shadow that had grabbed hold of his leg. He was crying and screaming as Kiku chopped viciously at the shadow. He saw gilbert cornered against a wall trying to fight off the different monsters that formed from the dusty shadows. This was chaos.

_I will win Alfred…_

_They cannot kill me, I am connected to you, as long as you live! I live! You all will perish…_

Her voice rang clearly in his head. His eyes froze determined of what was going to happen. He felt his hands shake slightly. Time moved slowly around him, each footstep that Arthur took closer brough his eyes to Alfred's face.

He saw Gilbert starring at him. Attempting to give him some sort of warning. Someone must have been getting too close. He felt the presence of Arthur getting closer as he looked into his caretakers eyes he sighed.

He knew the only way to end this was to kill her…

He slowly raised the gun to his head and closed his eyes.

He would kill her.

Screams echoed in the back of his mind. This was the only way.

_Earlier that morning_

When Francis woke he was lying on the cold floor. He felt his body slowly begin to rise as he looked around. He looked for Matthew. He wondered where he could be and How he had gotten here in general.

"Matthieu! Come to your papa…" He mumbled lazily as he began to stand up. His legs felt weak as he stood, he was unsure of where he was, but the door was open and there was a gentle breeze coming from the air conditioner.

He heard a distant ringing sound in the background. He felt his heart pounding as he rubbed a distinct bruise on the back of his head. He yawned and as he looked toward the door he saw something strange. "Matthew…" He mumbled the English pronunciation like a plea.

He saw the same sort of eyes that Arthur had…

He sighed before walking up to him. Maybe he would have some sort of sense of Francis. Matthew looked at him with his arms crossed. "Miss America wanted me to keep a watch on you…" He said in a flat monotone. "You are the only one left here with me. We are not allowed to leave the building."

Francis moved his way past the larger country. He waved his hand to dismiss the Canadian. "You are a silly boy Canada…" Francis looked him in the eyes and saw no reflection of him looking back.

"You know what will happen if you try to disobey Ms. America?" Francis nodded before he slowly turned in the hall to face his former child. "You know what we must do Matthieu…" He said looking with a comprehension that gave the vile understanding of what was about to happen.

One of them was going to walk out of there. Francis raised his fists getting ready to get into a brawl. He sighed, he couldn't hurt someone like Matthew. He watched the Canadian lunge toward him. He then watched the lights go out in Matthew's mind.

He blinked softly before he caught the bigger man in his arms. He gasped at the all of a sudden limp man, his muscles ached too much for him to support the little Canadian on his own. He slowly lowered him to the floor and blinked. What on earth was happening?

Arthur did not remember being awake. He didn't remember standing staring into the eyes of what seemed like a homicidal group. He saw a million weapons pointed at the shadows around him. He felt his pupils shrink and his irises burn as he grabbed them turning back to himself.

He didn't remember staring at Alfred, holding a gun to his own head. He stared at the blond hair that was to be singed by the gun. He was about to scream, as the gun went off. He remember hearing the sound of a thousand things falling down around him as he lunged forward.

He was too late, the blaring of the gun went off and blood was squirted across his face. He felt himself already running toward the American as the gun slipped out of Alfred's hands and fell to the floor. He heard a deafening scream of a woman and then a loud thunk as she hit the ground like a stone.

He felt a sob catch in his throat as he struggled to support the bigger man. "Alfred!" He screamed hoarsely. He felt strong arms slowly help him lower the dead body to the ground. He looked up to stare at an even whiter version of Gilbert.

A circle of nations surrounded the scene. The two men leant over the American. England was trying to shake his little brother awake. "Come on Alfie, wake up. America this isn't funny! You get up right now!" His fingers shook as he slowly felt himself wipe the blood from his face. And try to revive the other by summoning his magic. It would flicker at his fingers then go out.

There were sounds all about.

"Finland? I am glad you are back!"

"Vash! I missed you big brother!"

He watched as persons began to appear. The dead began to come back to life. He knew it was all to do with magic. They were all killed with magic, so magic would release them.

Arthur slowly felt himself look down at the own person that he had lost. He felt himself slowly reach his fingers across the others face. He removed the others glasses and slowly slid his eyelids closed.

He could not look at those blue eyes anymore.

Alfred just laid there. His body did not twitch or move. Amongst the shadows of the ashes. All of the nation's felt a mournful song play out of a mute speaker. For the fallen that had not returned.

He looked across to see Gilbert slowly slipping something off of his neck. He slowly lowered it down and over the American's neck. Arthur looked down there to see the black cross laying across his little brother's chest.

"America…" He heard from Prussia's parted lips as he kissed the forehead of the blond man. He then stood and seemed to walk off to his own sort of solitude. The circle released him as they all stared at their fallen hero.

Arthur wouldn't stand up. He felt a hand on his shoulder,"He saved us. As much as it pains me to admit it. He died for a good cause…" Arthur turned to see a burly Russian bowing his head and attempting to go off and console the distraught group of Baltics.

England was unable to stand up. His legs turned to noodles, and his heart to stone. Where he was once crying he was now just staring at the bloody mess of a man below him. "Don't worry America… I will take care of you... " He slowly fet his fingers trace a pentagram of blood on Alfred's forehead.

Arthur felt the power rising in his veins. He watched as his greenish magic strained his body to push out. He felt his muscles burn and his eyes close in pain. He couldn't not keep them closed for a very long time. He stared and he watched as the wound began to close. He looked around and then saw someone in front of him.

"You look like you need help…" Norway whispered. His purplish tendrils of magic began to combine with England's. "Why…?" Norway shook his head,"He may not be my favourite person… but he did just save us all from his crazy female clone…" He mumbled .

"I can help too!" Romania popped over slowly conjuring his crimson magic flew from his fingers into America's head. The three magical nations slowly began to strengthen their own magic. The light was unbearable.

The wound slowly began to heal around the two sides of the wound. The bullet lay lodged in the ground. Soaked in the blood of freedom, would be an ever living reminder of the blood soak on This battlefield.

The light got so unbearable Arthur had to look away at last. He cringed as he felt most of his life force flow into Alfred's limp body.

The light suddenly went out. Arthur blinked his eyes to look down at the perfectly still body lying on the floor infront of him. He felt tears spring from his eyes. Putting his hands on his knees he leant over the body. He slowly placed a kiss on the side of Alfred's cheek.

It was a good try…

He stood and struggled to walk away. He felt the help of a couple of other countries. He then heard a yawn in the distance. "Damn, I gotta stop binge drinking…"

He whipped around and his eyes lit up. He scrambled over to where Alfred was now sitting up. HIs bright eyes were as bright as ever. "America!" He shouted before almost tackling the older man further on the floor.

"Iggy. What the fuck? Where are we? Stop hugging me! There are so many people around!" Alfred blinked looking genuinely confused.

"You don't know where you are?"

"No."

"What do you remember?"

"Get off of my lap!"

"America!"

The bigger nation shrugged,"I don't remember much… Just woke up here… I went to bed last night and now I am here."

Arthur felt like this was a problem to deal with later. He was so glad that Alfred was okay. He just grabbed him in a hug and stayed there for what felt like hours.


	12. Chapter 12

_Amelia felt her body drifting softly around. She felt someone nudging her arm. "Amelia love… It is time to wake up…" She heard softly, she slowly shot up, and looked around. Where was she?_

_She was laying on the ground. It hurt a little to move, her head pounded like there was someone crashing the cymbals in it. "Who is there?" She asked uncertain. "It is me love, Alice.." She watched as she began to stand up, "Alice where are you?" She asked with a little bit of alarm in her voice._

_Her head pounded as she looked around. "I am here love to take you home." Amelia knew she was dead, she looked down at her corpse on the floor, she allowed her spirit to float to the voice. Suddenly she felt Alice's arms around her. "I missed you!" Amelia let out a smile that was wide and happy, she felt happier than she had ever been before._

" _I missed you too Alice." She forced the other girl into a hug, "Can we go home Alice…?"_

_Alice laughed and brushed Amelia's hair from her eyes. "Yes love let us go home.."_

"So you don't remember anything over the last few months?" Gil asked looking at the American who seemed pretty content eating his chocolate pudding. 'Nep! I guess it's a good thing, some shit went down didn't it!"

He looked at the Albino with curious eyes, "You seem, like depressed, you want some pudding?" He asked offering the almost empty pudding cup to the Prussian.

"No America." He chastised, he rolled his eyes and rose up from the chair which he had been sitting. He seemed a little cross and Alfred couldn't figure out why. He had lost about six months worth of memories, but how many of those could have been made with someone he hadn't really spoken to since the Second World War?

Alfred watched him leave, he was sporting a bandage around his head. He looked pretty content with himself over what he was eating. He heard a knock at the door and watched as slowly a man around his height stepped into the room.

Arthur looked down at him and scoff. "Hello, America…" He said looking mildly uncomfortable. "How are you feeling?" He asked before closing the door and looking at the American with maternal, worried eyes.

Alfred felt a headache coming in and set his pudding cup down. "Meh…" He mumbled running a hand up to the scarred material on the side of his head where his hair used to be. He of course still had a bright blond head of hair, but half of it was shaved off. On the sides where the bullet had gone through they had to keep the healing wound from getting infected.

He rubbed his wound and cringed, guess it wasn't done healing yet. "Don't do that! You're going to cause an infection!" Arthur snapped looking down at him with a strict tone. "I know! I'm not a kid anymore!" He huffed.

Saying that usually diffused an argument between the two by making the older nation a bit depressed. This wasn't the case this time. Alfred crossed his arms and sighed, the moment he looked away he felt two slender arms wrap around him.

"Thank you…"

"What for?" Alfred asked genuinely confused about what he had done. He could honestly not remember, his brain was a scrambled mess. He sighed and let himself relax. His head began to pound and he blocked out the rest of what Arthur said.

He was exhausted and he ended up going slack on Arthur's shoulder. He was finally relaxed and he could finally let himself shrug into the embrace of someone who knew him well. It felt comfortable.

"Alfred? Love?" He heard. "Meh… I have a headache... " He grumbled, "I wanna go back to sleep, but I won't be able to…" Arthur seemed to nod and retract. "I will get a doctor to come and dope you up. You will be able to go home soon you know." He said conservatively. His eyes looked straight into Alfred's and Alfred raised an eyebrow.

"England… Why are you so upset? I am really fine."

"You wouldn't understand. You have never had a…" Britain's voice trailed off and he was at a point where his back was turned to Alfred. "A child…" He said softly. He then watched the Great Kingdoms shoulders shake.

Alfred climbed out of bed slowly and looked at the crying country. "I am fine Arthur… Really… " He said softly before hugging him from behind. "I can't die Arthur. We have proved that-."

"You were dead Alfred! We had to bring you back!"

He turned in the other's embrace," Alfred… You died… It was all my fault…" He whispered. He then hugged the bigger nation and there seemed to finally be peace.

Francis stepped off the plane with Matthieu in tow. " _Vous ne dormez pas du tout à travers le trajet en avion vous a fait?_ " Matthew shook his head and buried his head in his hands for a moment. "

 _J'étais mort. Je ne comprends pas…"_ Matthew shrugged.

Francis threw an arm around his shoulder, "Oh it is not that bad! You are alive! I know that things are difficult, but when you see your brother you can clear things up… I would assume he would be really happy to see you."

Francis had a lot on his mind. Specifically Arthur, he was unsure of what he was going to say or do when he got to the other. He felt himself shaking slightly, he wondered if Arthur remembered their time together in the cage that seemed to hold them from the rest of the world.

He sighed softly and walked Matthew with him to the taxicab line. All of the remaining countries were to meet and attempt to get together. They were in the United States, since most of the countries were there from the last meeting that they had was there.

They had been found by the Military in an abandoned bunker in Canada. "I do not know if this matters, but I am glad you are alive _petite_." He said with a happy little smile on his cheeks. He saw Matthews mood perk a little. He then smiled,"There you go!" He said happily before the two of them got into the cab.

The ride was long and tedious. Francis hadn't gotten the chance to get any sort of technology back since he had been captured by the evil witch girl. His facial features fell, it was such a shame that something so beautiful and so sweet looking had been corrupt like that. She was not of this time, but she wasn't wrong in all of the sense.

He looked out the window surprised at how unscathed the American country side was. Everything seemed pretty intact. He assumed since she was a part of America, she didn't want to accidentally murder herself by chance.

When the cab finally stopped Matthew was the first to get out. The bunker looked terrible, there was debris and dirt pretty much everywhere. It was messy and dusty, it grossed Francis out just in the slightest. He stepped out of the car before he frowned, he wondered why they were all meeting here when there was so many bad memories that were contained within this place.

There was a soft wind of conclusion brushing against Francis's bruised cheek. He looked pretty well intact. Possibly skinnier than he had been before this entire mess.

As they opened the doors and slowly began to descend down the stairs, Francis possibly felt nervousness for the first time.

He breathed out, his eyes scanned the dirty hallways as Matthew walked with him. They looked around curiously, wondering where everyone had gone. Off in the distance there was a noise. It sounded like an abundant argument.

" _I told you! I am the most powerful, valiant country! We should go with my plan!"_

" _Oh shut it, you bloody oaf! You are wrong as you always have been, we are not sending all of the nukes into space!"_

" _Veeeee I am scared! Germany!"_

Francis smiled for the first time in a while. He looked at the younger country next to him. "Come on Matthieu… Let's go home." The bigger country smiled as he pushed the doors open.

Everything was finally back to normal.


End file.
